HEREFORD CATTLE, 
53 
at his expense. Such a breeder would never save 
a mongrel male; and he would be safe in his re¬ 
commendations, knowing the proof of the animal in 
which he placed his dependence ; nor would he be 
deceived in the produce of such a sire, probably, 
nineteen times out of twenty, when the animals 
bred from were good and unalloyed. I would not 
scruple in sending a bull calf to any upright, honest 
man without prejudice, and warrant him a good 
stock getter, even if his appearance was not in his 
favor. I should know positively from whence he 
sprang, and should feel perfectly convinced that the 
•result would be satisfactory. 
A breeder of good and pure bred sires, has a great 
deal to contend against. His judgment must never 
waver, every point of an animal must be strictly 
observed, and carefully put into practice ) then he is 
nearly certain of producing a good one. I consider 
the handling point one of the most important, for a 
good handler is not only a good feeder; gets ripe 
more quickly with less consumption of food, but is 
a rich milker and a sire bred from a cow possess¬ 
ing these two important points, is of very great 
consequence. He produces quality, if he does not 
quantity, which is in reality true value. I would 
much rather have a milking herd of the former than 
the latter ; an average of sixteen quarts per day is 
-as much as any reasonable man ought to expect, 
and there are not four herds in ten which will come 
up to that through the summer. 
When a breeder has paid every attention to these 
matters and has succeeded in getting as near per¬ 
fection as his ability will admit, it is not appreciated 
by the people of this republic. If he asks a hun¬ 
dred dollars for a calf (and I would not sell one for 
less), he is laughed at, or is considered exorbitant 
in his charge. No man can sell a calf of the de¬ 
scription I speak lower ; nor does a farmer deserve 
to own such an animal who has not sufficient spirit 
to pay those who have taken the greatest pains, and 
studied with considered care the ways and means 
of producing him. How many there are who like 
to look at superior animals; but how few who will 
aid to advance their improvement. The men of 
bank stock, railroad stock, and every other kind of 
stock but the right stock, and who quarrel with 
their butchers for sending the tough heef they tug 
at and chew , and have plenty of money at command, 
still hold back their funds from improving the very 
stock they feed upon. There are many who own 
thousands of acres of land, who have never spent a 
dollar towards the improvement of the mongrel 
stock, growing upon it. And there are those who 
have but little, and who have toiled hard with that 
little for the benefit of mankind, and have met with 
ridicule and abuse to add to their loss, trouble, and 
expense. But when you take into consideration 
the numerous animals of different breeds that have 
been imported into this country from England, and 
witness the inferiority of them generally, you can¬ 
not blame their lack of confidence. If a tenth part 
of the stock brought here had been prohibited from 
landing, and that money had been laid out in the 
best of each kind, then the public would not have 
been humbugged , which they certainly have been 
and to a very great extent. They have paid enor¬ 
mous prices for very spurious animals, large coarse 
worthless brutes , that have injured the common stock 
of the country, rather than improved it; and it 
will take a long time to conquer the illiberal feel¬ 
ing that exists against imported stock. 
If you wish me to write you some short articles 
on the Herefords, I will endeavor to do so, and for 
the next number, I will commence on calves and 
their treatment while young. [Please to do so.— Ed.] 
All the Herefords that are not giving milk, are 
living on marsh hay, not a bit of anything else 
have they had before them this winter. I never 
saw them looking better, and I am perfectly con¬ 
vinced that a Hereford beast will live and do well 
on coarser food than any other kind of animal; 
and those who try them will find it so ; they are 
not choice eaters. You are aware what kind of 
marsh hay it is, as you know the premises equally 
well as myself. I have four bull calves for sale 
that will be wintered on marsh hay for breakfast, 
a two bushel basket of cut Timothy hay, with 
about two quarts of shipstuff' mixed with it for din¬ 
ner, and one and a half for supper, and I think they 
will come out in the spring fit for business; al¬ 
though not very high in condition, they will be as 
good as I would wish them. Wm. H. Sotham, 
Black Rock , Erie Co. N. F., Dec. 21, 1847. 
With respect to wintering an animal on marsh 
hay , we can tell a story which is rather before that 
of our correspondent. When we occupied the 
same premises that Mr. Sotham now does, among 
other animals on the farm, was a three-year-old 
Durham bull. We had a stack of marsh hay 
standing outside of the barn, one of the coldest aiid 
bleakest spots we know upon the Niagara River. 
At that time, 1836, it was generally charged as a 
fault of the Durham breed of cattle, that they were 
not so hardy as the natives. We determined to try 
an experiment on this bull, for the purpose of as¬ 
certaining so far as he was concerned, whether 
there was any truth in this oft repeated assertion of 
the enemies of this breed. We accordingly took 
him up from pasture late in the month of Novem¬ 
ber, 1836, and turned him out to this stack. The 
bull was not inside of a barn or shed, to our know¬ 
ledge, all winter. His only shelter was the lee- 
side of the stack, and his only food, its harsh, coarse 
hay, and the orts he got out of a dung heap, daily 
accumulating from the horse stable. Not a particle 
of cut hay, or roots, or bran, had he in addition. He 
came out in the spring in good condition, which 
was, we will venture to say, more than would have 
been the case withjnost oi the bulls of any other 
breed. The following winter he was treated pre¬ 
cisely in the same way, and came out looking 
equally well—really, in fine condition. 
To prove the working qualites of Durhams, so 
far as we then could, the following winter ’38 and 
’39, we put this bull at work, lumbering, alongside of 
a large, powerful eight year-old stag. The stag 
girted six inches more than the bull, and was pro- 
portionably heavier. They worked in common 
with twelve other yoke of the most powerful cattle 
we could purchase in Erie county. The timber 
these cattle drew out, was large, heavy white oak 
logs, from 20 to 65 feet long, probably averaging 
full forty feet in length, and two and a half feet in 
diameter. Some were four feet in diameter at the 
butt end. All who have any experience in lum 
