DOMESTICATED BRITISH CATTLE 105 
were bred to brownish or yellowish red, a few being 
even brindled. Grey and mottled faces then came 
in ; but with the exception of a few greys, the 
modern colour is deep rich red, with white face, 
throat, brisket, belly, flanks, feet, and tail. These 
cattle are a hardy gentle breed, maturing early, with 
flesh of superior quality, well marbled, and heavy in 
the prime parts ; they fatten to weights fully as heavy 
as any breed. The cows, however, are not abundant 
milkers, and in fact give but little milk. Indeed, they 
never were large milkers ; and while a course of 
breeding for many generations as beef-makers has 
brought these cattle to such great weights and such 
perfect symmetry that they dispute the palm in the 
show-ring with the best shorthorns, this has gradually 
eliminated such milking properties as they may have 
formerly possessed. 
As regards the development of the modern type of 
colour, Professor C. S. Plumb ^ makes the following 
observations: "Marshall in 1788 wrote that the 
prevailing colour was red with a bald ( = white) face. 
In time a wider range of colour crept in, so that in 
1845, when Eyton published the first herd-book, he 
grouped Herefords into four classes, namely, mottled- 
faced, light grey, dark grey, and red with white face. 
Twenty-five years later, however, all the colours but 
the last were practically extinct." 
As regards weight, Herefords are some of the 
heaviest of all domesticated cattle, one bull being 
reported to have weighed 3640 lb. 
Herefords appear to have been first introduced 
into the United States in 1817, when three head 
^ Types and Breeds of Farm Animals, Boston and New York, 
1906, p. 201. 
