1902 
rHE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
63 
POLLED HEREFORD CATTLE. 
The question is asked whether there 
are any Polled Hereford cattle in the 
United 'States. In 1898. while the writer 
was attending the Trans-Mississippi Ex¬ 
position at Omaha, he made the ac¬ 
quaintance of Judge W. W. Guthrie, of 
Atchison, Kan. A few years before, the 
Judge, with a son, had come into pos¬ 
session of a Polled Hereford bull. This 
they bred to some grade 'Short-horn 
cows, from which cross they secured a 
number of individuals of each sex. As I 
remember it, some inbreeding w r as prac¬ 
ticed, so that in 1898 Mr. Guthrie and 
his son had a small exhibit of these cat¬ 
tle at the Exposition at Omaha. These 
were called by them “Polled Kansans,’’ 
but they were marked witn the white 
faces and some of the characteristics of 
Hereford®, and were apparently grade 
Herefords. Up to 1898 these cattle had 
passed to the fifth generation from the 
first pronounced type. Ten cows were 
originally bred to the polled bull, and 
of these cows only one dropped a calf 
with any show of horns, and fully SO 
per cent of the outside cows bred to this 
original bull had polled calves. The 
Guthries considered these cattle easy 
keepers, fair milkers, and of early ma¬ 
turity. Those shown at Omaha attract¬ 
ed considerable attention, but they were 
inclined to be somewhat rangy, a little 
leggy, and of more the general-purpose 
conformation than the close-coupled, 
broad-backed, thick-fleshed, short-leg¬ 
ged Hereford type. 
In a recent letter from Judge Guthrie, 
the senior of the firm, he writes that 
after the Omaha exhibition, when he 
found that they, were making good 
progress in their breeding operations, 
they decided to call their cattle "Polled 
Herefords.” Quoting from his letter he 
says: “While not letting go of my 
original idea—which was to make an 
all-’round breed of cattle for the small 
farmer—I have continued to infuse more 
and more standard Hereford blood, and 
now, without having lost any of the 
good points I had hoped for from the 
amalgamation of Hereford and Short¬ 
horn blood, I am producing well-colored 
Herefords uniformly hornless, with the 
heavy loins of the Short-horn and fair 
milking qualities.” Accompanying his 
letter were two photographs of males, 
and the illustration in Fig. 23, page 51, 
is reproduced from one of these. This 
figure shows a rangy, useful type, repre¬ 
senting the general-purpose male in 
conformation. The above animals rep¬ 
resent the result of crossing, and Judge 
Guthrie writes that representatives of 
this stock are now to be found at Mer¬ 
cer, Iowa; Montford, Wis.; Virginia, 
Ill.; Coleman, Texas, and Blaker Mills, 
West Va., and that they are well scat¬ 
tered in Kansas and Nebraska. There 
is at the present time, however, an ef¬ 
fort being made to establish a line of 
pure-bred Polled Hereford cattle. War¬ 
ren Gammon, of Des Moines, Iowa, 
writes me from the “Office of the Ameri¬ 
can Polled 'Hereford Cattle Club,” a 
comparatively recent organization. Mr. 
Gammon owns 14 head of pure-bred, 
registered Polled Herefords, 10 of which 
are free from scurs or buttons. His 
herd was originated by selecting “sports 
or freaks” to breed from. The first at¬ 
tempt was to use high-grade Herefords 
on mulleys or cattle of the Polled Dur¬ 
ham type. After very extensive corre¬ 
spondence Mr. Gammon got possession 
of some pure-bred Polled Herefords, as 
he recently stated in The R. N.-Y., and 
began to breed from such stock. He 
first bought “Duchess of Bedford 22d,” 
64437, a cow weighing about 1,800 
pounds, which he says is a blocky, fine 
individual, and well supplied with the 
blood of The Grove 3d and other fa¬ 
mous Herefords. In his letter Mr. Gam¬ 
mon gives me the names of a number 
of his cattle and their registration num¬ 
bers in Hie American Hereford Record. 
He states that a two-year-old bull, 
"Giant,” 101740, used .in, service in his 
herd, sired 12 calves from 'horned cows, 
nine of which were mulleys. He fur¬ 
ther states that there are a few pure¬ 
bred Hereford males in this country 
that have sired hornless offspring, and 
particularly notes the name of “Cor¬ 
rector,” 48976, one of the famous Here¬ 
ford bulls of the day, a name well- 
known to all familiar with Hereford 
pedigrees. Mr. Gammon has a polled 
grand-daughter of “Corrector” that he 
regards as a very fine individual. Mr. 
Gammon further writes: I do not 
think these cattle differ from the ordi¬ 
nary Hereford cattle, but do think that 
I have been remarkably lucky in find¬ 
ing animals that are very fine individ¬ 
uals and are well supplied with very 
fashionable blood.” The foregoing 
shows that at the present time there 
are two strains of Polled Herefords, one 
pure and the other impure in Hereford 
blood, just exactly as we have two 
strains of Polled Short-horns (common¬ 
ly called Polled Durhams), one of pure 
descent and the other not. 
One has but to handle cattle in the 
feed lot to realize that horns do not 
help the feeder. A visit to the stock 
yards of Chicago or Omaha will show a 
surprisingly large percentage of horn¬ 
less animals there. There are good and 
stbong arguments in favor of mulley 
animals, or dishorning, consequently 
there is justification in the development 
of this strain of Polled Herefords. There 
is not, however, any good reason for es¬ 
tablishing another breeding association 
for Herefords, simply because they lack 
horns. The same also apply to 'Short¬ 
horns. These animals of pure breeding 
are already registered in the universally 
recognized American Hereford Record, 
so what is gained by creating another 
association? Breeders of Polled Here¬ 
fords of pure blood can specify for pub¬ 
lication that the animals registered are 
polled, ic this seems necessary. The 
fewer breeding associations we have, 
however, for the same breed, the better 
for the breeders as a whole. The only 
good argument for a Polled Hereford 
Cattle Club will be that of advertising 
hornless animals, for provision is al¬ 
ready made for their registration, if 
pure, in a universally recognized herd 
book. c. s. PLUMB. 
A RHODE ISLAND HEN FEEDER. 
I will now give you the particulars 
about H. R. Underwood’s hen feeding, 
as promised in a recent issue. He has 
six pens, as follows: No. 1, 50 pullets, 
one day’s yield, 24 eggs; No. 2, 50 pul¬ 
lets, 22 eggs; No. 3, 50 pullets, 15 eggs; 
No. 4, 46 yearling hens, four eggs; No. 
5, 37 yearlings hens, 11 eggs; No. 6, 10 
yearling hens, one egg; total 77 eggs. 
This, remember, was during the first 
week of January of an exceptionally 
bad year for eggs. His pens are 10x16 
feet. He has scratching sheds, but does 
not use them this Winter because they 
were not made right, and leak badly. 
He feeds two kinds of mash, one one 
day and the other the next. The only 
difference is that every second morn¬ 
ing he feeds boiled oats for part of the 
mash. The mash without the oats is 
two quarts cornmeal, four quarts mixed 
feed (so-called), one quart beef scraps. 
For the other mash he puts oats in a 
kettle at night, brings them to a boil, 
and mixes them with the meal, wheat 
feed and scraps in the morning. They 
swell so that each quart will make about 
two quarts. This mash consists of one 
quart beef scraps, one quart cornmeal, 
two quarts mixed feed, four quarts 
boiled oats. He feeds the mas'h in the 
morning, and at three o’clock feeds 
about the same quantity, by measure, 
of hard grain as of mash in the morn¬ 
ing. The hard grain is prepared by 
simply mixing together three bushels 
of oats and one bushel of corn. This is 
all he feeds, except that he throws a 
head of cabbage in each pen every sec¬ 
ond day. He does not use auy scratch¬ 
ing material, such as straw or leaves, 
but would like to, if he had it. 
Now, isn’t that easy and simple? But 
don’t think everybody can do it with 
the same feed, and following the direc¬ 
tions to a T, for they can’t. There is a 
good deal in the stock and how it is 
raised, and a good deal of difference as 
to who throws in the feed. The man 
who feeds hens successfully has got to 
watch them and know how much to 
feed, and no one can learn to do it ex¬ 
cept by experience and close observa¬ 
tion. When Mr. Underwood fed for me 
I mixed, for the mash, 400 pounds mixed 
feed, or bran and middlings, 200 pounds 
cornmeal, 100 pounds bran gluten meal, 
and 100 pounds beef scraps, all thor¬ 
oughly shoveled together and thrown 
into a bin and drawn out as needed 
through a chute into a trough in the 
mixing room below, where it was mixed 
up with hot water from a set kettle 
standing near the trough. Twice a week 
boiled potatoes were mixed with the 
mash, and cabbages or mangels were 
fed occasionally. Cracked corn, wheat, 
oats and hulled oats were fed every day 
at three o’clock in litter in the scratch¬ 
ing sheds. He never fed but twice a 
day, and does not approve of feeding 
oftener. My hens used to lay better 
than his do now, but they are laying 
very poorly this Winter. Before closing I 
would like to ask Mr. Mapes a few ques¬ 
tions. First, how do his hens lay com¬ 
pared with Mr. Underwood’s? Second, 
does he give his bens -water in addition 
to the skim-milk? Third, in the absence 
of skim-milk, would it not be nearly as 
good to keep corn, oats and beef scraps 
before the fowls? n. j. w. 
Summit, R. I. 
FISTULA AND POLL EVIL 
Fleming's Fistnlaand Poll Evil Cure I 
is a new, scientific <fc certain remedy, 
NO COST IF IT FAILS. 
Write today for Important circular No. 441 
FLEMING BROS., Chemists, 
Union Stock Yards, Chicago. 
Cured 
[in 15 to 
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A Pocket 
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Every Elgin 
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word “ Elgin” |f[ I n 
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Sharpies Tubular” 
FARM 
Cream Separators. 
If no agent will bring you a Sharpies 
Separator, we will loan you one for 
trial free of cost. Though hundreds 
of our latest have gone on trial, not 
one has been returned. The truth is, 
they give more butter than any other 
separator, enough to pay big interest 
on the whole first cost, and they turn 
n i uch east er (former capacity doubled 
withless driving power) and are en¬ 
tirely simple, safe and durable. 
Separator improve¬ 
ments come fast 
here. These new ma¬ 
chines are far ahead 
of anything else 
known. We have 
been making super¬ 
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years (longest i n 
America) and are 
proud of them, but 
these new ‘'Tubu¬ 
lars” discount any¬ 
thing either our¬ 
selves or anyone has 
ever made. 
Other agents will try 
and draw comparisons ^ 
between their new raa- -c 
chinesand our old ones, 
but don’t let them. Have a trial of a “Tub¬ 
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money s worth. Free book “Business 
Dairying” and catalogue No. 153. 
Sharpies Co., P. M. Sharpies, 
Chicago, His, Westchester. Pa. 
f m 
\\ i 
A 
Machines in Use. 
Ten Times All Other Makes Combined. 
The Standard of All That’s Best in Dairying 
in Every Country in the World. 
That’s the history of the 
De Laval 
Cream Separators 
Send for new “ 20th Century” catalogue. 
THE DE LAVAL SEPARATOR CO., 
Randolph & Canal Sts.. General OllicOs: 327 Commissioners St. 
CHICAGO. MONTREAL. 
philajjelphla. 74 Cort/andt Street, 75 & ^ 1 ToNTo. reet ’ 
NEW YORK. 
103 A IUj Mission Street, 
SAN FRANCISCO. 
248 McDermot t Avenue, 
WINNIPEG. 
$5t ft .2Q FOR BUGGY NO. A607, SKQ.35 FOR BUGGY NO. 553, 
WO- WITH STEEL TIRFS. - 
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