54 
Hereford Cattle. 
followers to sedulously preserve their horse breeds, that they 
might become a “ source of happiness and wealth to many. 
If the breeders of ponies will give a little more attention to 
the breeding of their animals and take advantage ot the 
premium sires, a few years should show a marked improvement 
in their stock, and this might be an inducement to those m 
authority to act upon the Pony Commissioners suggestions and 
to grant the filly foal premiums mentioned above. ^ Govern- 
ment have offered aid to the restoration of our Old .Native 
Breed of Cobs. It is the chance of a lifetime, a chance it 
unaccepted not likely to recur. It remains to pony leeceis 
to take it or leave it. Pony associations are being formed ^ m 
many places, and applications coming from several districts 
for an exercise of powers conferred by the Commons Act. 
Pony owners and commoners with rights of pasture upon 
hills and moorlands are beginning to get together and to 
realise that grazing rights can be put to a better purpose an 
the mere maintenance of a mixture of siies and a me ey o 
In conclusion, I would venture to hope that ere long Board 
Premiums, Free Nominations, Pony Associations, and the 
Commons Act will become household words in rural Wales, 
and then, and not till then, will a new era dawn for this 
neglected but hopeful subordinate industry of agriculture. 
Chas. Coltman Rogers. 
Stanage Park, 
Radnorshire. 
HEREFORD CATTLE. 
THE exact origin of the Hereford breed has always been a 
subject of speculation and controversy. Several agricultural 
historians make mention of the breed in various wor s 
published in the eighteenth century, but their theories as 
to its origin are so conflicting as to be of little use m 
arriving at a correct conclusion. There is, however, no 
doubt that the district of Herefordshire was noted for its 
cattle from the earliest date. Speed, writing in 1627, men- 
tioned that “ the soyle of the County was so fertile lor 
corne and cattle that no place in England yieldeth more or 
better conditioned.” Marshall, writing in 1788, said the 
cattle of Herefordshire were the most valuable breed ot 
cattle in the Island, and he gives a detailed description of 
the cattle as he then found them which would be almost 
correct to-day, certainly correct as to their markings. There 
may be some difference in the conformation from the modern 
Hereford which is somewhat less angular, shorter legged, with 
