70 AMERICAN CATTLE. 



with mottled red and white faces, and httle or no white on 

 the throat, belly, or back. The improved Herefords are of 

 lighter red, with .white faces usually, (although we have seen 

 some of the old style of color,) and occasionally one will "crop 

 out" with a lively short-horn roan all over. We once saw a 

 purely white one in color, with no red, except the ears, her 

 parents, bull and cow, being red, with white faces ; and another, 

 an imported cow, with drooping, half-length horns. These are 

 certainly out of line with the true Herefords, and the short-horn 

 advocates charge that such oflFahoota betray short-horn blood. 

 Be the facts of their breeding as they may, the differences in 

 color and horn, are palpable. That these appearances have not 

 injured the animals themselves, is evident, for they were admira- 

 ble Herefords in all their valuable points, as any among their 

 congeners of the true colors, and upright spread of horns. We, 

 at least, shall not take sides in the controversy. It is sufficient 

 to note the facts as we have seen them. 



THE HEREFORDS IN AMERICA. 



At what date they were first imported into this country, we 

 have no accurate account; but that some Herefords came out 

 among the early importations, is evident, from the occasional 

 marks of the breed among our native cattle where late importa- 

 tions have not been known. In the year 1816 or '17 the great 

 Kentucky statesman, Henry Clay, imported two pairs of them 

 irito his State, and put them on his farm at Ashland. They 

 were bred for a time with each other, and the bulls were crossed 

 with other cows ; but it is certain that they left no permanent 

 impress on the herds of that vicinity, as Mr. Clay himself 

 became a breeder of short-horns soon afterwards, and eventually 

 discarded the blood from his herds, if he had for any length 

 of time retained it. No trace of them is now seen in Kentucky. 

 A few years later. Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin, of tlie English 



