THE CULTIVATOR. 
49 
HEREFORD BULL, SIR GEORGE. (Fig. 26.) 
The Herefords and Short Horns. 
Messrs. Gaylord 8c Tucker— In looking over the 
hack numbers of the London Farmer’s Magazine, I find 
in that of September, 1837, a portrait of “ Sir George.” 
I send you a cut from it (fig. 26,) for insertion ; and as 
he is the sire and grandsire of a portion of our Here¬ 
fords, I copy the accompanying account: 
“ The subject of the plate is a Hereford bull, called 
1 Sir George,’ the property of John Hewer, Esq. of 
Hampton Lodge, near Hereford. In giving some de¬ 
scription of him to our readers, we cannot do better 
than quote Mr. Hewer’s own account of him :—‘ Sir 
George, now ten years old, was got by Waxy ; Waxy 
by Wellington, his dam Beauty by old Wellington the 
sire of Wellington. -They are of the old original blood, 
and I believe confined to myself. Sir George has won 
five premiums.’ ” 
I send you this account to show a portrait of the ori¬ 
ginal breed ; and it is my intention to answer, as briefly 
as possible, the remarks of Mr. Randall and Mr. Hep¬ 
burn. The latter says, I have “ selected my weakest 
adversary, confident of an easy victory.” I know not 
why, when each derives his information from the same 
source, both making many quotations from theory ; the 
language of one may be rather more classical than the 
other, each grounding their hopes of success on the 
name of a standard work, that standard not written by a 
breeder. Mr. R. launching out, with similes from other 
writers, and then says—“ But after all, I am not convin¬ 
ced that the Herefords have been converted into Dur- 
hams.” And I see from the extract of the Hon. Hen¬ 
ry Clay’s letter, that his cattle must have been select¬ 
ed from such breeders as Mr. Youatt describes, not from 
the best; therefore I perceive nothin g formidable in any 
remark from either, that would cause me fearful thoughts 
of an overthrow. If I cannot gain a victory justly, I 
shall not feel entitled to the reward. 
Now, gentlemen, I am quite willing to take you indi¬ 
vidually or collectively ; you may quote theory hack to 
the fall of Adam if you choose, and breed cattle from 
that instruction, and if you do not possess a fallen race, 
I shall be mistaken in judgment. 
If we are to enter into a detailed controversy we must 
suggest some means of bringing it before the public for 
inspection and decision ; the Cultivator, (according to 
your account,) is pressed with too much important mat¬ 
ter to admit long articles ; this can be agreed upon, and 
winter evenings are best for a farmer’s study. I do not see 
any thing more to be noticed at present in Mr. R.’s 
article, further than this : he presses me to challenge 
the Short Horn breeders for milking. I am not dispo¬ 
sed to give challenges, but as he has called it forth, I 
will show a milking cow in May next, against him or 
Mr. Hepburn, for a silver cup, value $15—mine shall be. 
a pure Hereford , my opponent’s, a pure Short Horn. I 
shall not extend it unless it is urged upon me. Mr. H. 
says “ according to my own showing, many a good ox 
has been bred from an inferior animalI should like 
to know when this assertion was made by me ; have I 
acknowledged the Hereford cow inferior, because You¬ 
att has ? Never ; this must be a wild thought; probably 
I have seen as many of the best oxen of this country as 
Mr. H. or any other person. In the fall of 1838,1 pur¬ 
chased myself, for barreling, nearly five thousand head 
of cattle, in the western country, in the course of two 
months, and was engaged in that business four years 
previous, where from four to six thousand were slaugh¬ 
tered annually, selecting the best.for the New-York 
market ; and in the whole time I did not see an ox that 
was bordering on goodness, (for what I call a show 
beast;) good, breeding must be looked to, for such an an¬ 
imal, and requires as much skill as it does to breed a 
bull or cow. I should have beenxnuch surprised at this 
remark from a breeder , had I not known he was led 
astray by the study of theory alone. Mr. H. may have 
seen large oxen, but I doubt whether he ever saw the 
first quality. I shall leave the breeders of our cattle to 
answer the unwarrantable attack he has made on them. I 
shall only tell him that were they disposed to “ steal” cross¬ 
es, or represent them pure when not so, they could not 
show them for a premium—a true certificate of their 
pedigree is demanded. If they are entered as pure 
Herefords, they must prove so, or the beast is dis¬ 
qualified, the owner erased from the list, and never 
allowed to show an animal again. Matchless was 
entered as a pure Hereford, won the first prize, and 
I defy any man to prove there is a drop of Durham blood 
in her veins, or any other of our animals that I say are 
Herefords. I hope this is plain enough for Mr. Hep¬ 
burn. We have a half bred Durham heifer, as I have 
before stated, and a man that can distinguish a mule 
from a Spanish ass, can see this cross, though I think 
her a superior animal. I refer these gentlemen to the 
late numbers of the Farmer’s Magazine, to peruse the 
letters of Mr. Price and Mr. Bates ; there they may pro¬ 
fit from practical knowledge, and see what the Here¬ 
fords were forty years ago in their estimation. 
I was honored by a letter from the Earl of Warwick, 
a few days since, which I send you, and trust his Lord- 
ship will not feel displeased at his name appearing in 
your valuable paper ; much information may be glean¬ 
ed from it. 
I think I may say with confidence, we have just re¬ 
ceived from R. Lovel, Esq., Edgecott Lodge, one of 
the finest Short Horn heifers, coming three years old, 
that has ever crossed the water. I will send you her 
likeness and pedigree at some future period ; she is a 
pure Herd Book animal. 
I could say much on Mr. R. and Mr. H.’s articles, 
but will leave it to consult your space, or some other 
means to do so. Their ideas of arriving into notice as 
breeders, in six or eight years, are quite ridiculous un¬ 
less at an enormous expense to start with. 
Yours sincerely, WM. H’Y SOTHAM. 
Perch Lake Farm, Jefferson Co., N. Y. Feb. 1840. 
Letter from the Earl of Warwick. 
7 Carlton Gardens, Dec. 28, 1840. 
Sir —I received your letter of the 13th of November, 
and accompanied by a Cultivator paper ; your wishing 
an answer, induces me send one, but not breeding my¬ 
self any Herefordshire cattle, I fear I have little satis¬ 
factory to communicate ; or any breeding stock on my 
farm to show you should you visit this country. I con¬ 
sider they can breed better stock in the counties where 
the soil is best adapted to it, and where the whole atten¬ 
tion of the farm is devoted to that object. I therefore 
buy in my stock poor, between two and three years 
old ; fat them and feed them off for the butcher as I 
can get them ready, on grass, for summer keep, Swede 
turneps, (on which I mostly depend) and hay for 
the winter keep, with some finish only of oil cake when 
necessary. To do which it would be immaterial to me 
what breed I bought, or where, depending on what 
would grow and fat fastest, as good butcher’s beasts, 
the butcher being my customer ; and I have no doubt 
the Herefords are the best breed for such objects; and 
notwithstanding well bred ones are bought very dear, 
(a proof of their estimation,) I think they pay best for 
their keep, turning into money fastest for the food they 
eat, and less liable to casualties, from the thriving dis¬ 
position of their constitutions to do well, and lay on 
flesh while growing. I send into Herefordshire and 
buy in lean young stock of the best breeders, not trust¬ 
ing to the fairs ; I know how all are bred. 
The ox I won the first prize with at the Smithfield 
Show last year, (and the best beast of any class shown, 
ninety competitors.) I so bought as a three year old, 
(with many more,) for £17, lean. He ran with the other 
steers, and was put up with them to fat, and I never 
thought of sending him to Smithfield till two months 
before the show, as I never sent a beast there before. 
After the show, I sold him to a London butcher to kill 
for £70. There is a wretched print of him in the Lon¬ 
don shops. The painter who did his picture for me 
is Mr. Davis, animal painter to the Queen, and lives at 
Chelsea. He has made a very good colored engraving, 
and one of which I shall be very happy to procure for 
you, if you will have the goodness to write to me 
when you arrive next summer in England. 
We breed some pretty good Leicester sheep in War¬ 
wickshire ; my bailiff will be very happy to show you 
any thing I may have, if you are likely to be that way. 
I only breed sheep—we consider nothing like the Lei¬ 
cester for long wool, and South Downs for short.- A 
Leicester tup has been known to let for the season for 
£1000. My house in London is 7 Carlton Gardens. 
Your obt. servt. WARWICK. 
W. H. Sotham, Esq. 
Messrs. Gaylord & Tucker —Since writing you, I 
learn from Mr. Thornton, (the person who has charge 
of our stock,) that the heifer Spot, by “ Sir George,” 
coming three years old, calved on the 18th of January j 
is now giving from five to six quarts of milk daily, over 
what her calf sucks ; he is a fine bull, thriving very 
fast, is her first calf, and lies loose in the stable with 
her ; her feed has been cut straw and hay of about equal 
quantities, mixed with about a peck of bran. Gay is 
the dam of Spot, whose pedigree may be seen in the Ju¬ 
ly number of the Cultivator. Yours sincerely, 
Albany, Feb. 20, 1841. W. H’Y SOTHAM. 
Indian Corn Fro Auction of a New Variety. 
Messrs. Gaylord 8c Tucker— Some years since I 
obtained from our friend the late Judge Buel, a few 
quarts of Dutton corn, but it did not answer my expec¬ 
tations as to earliness, and I then determined to manu¬ 
facture a corn which would be perfectly safe from frost 
in our short seasons. As the Canada corn was decidedly 
too short in the ear, I concluded to try the experiment 
of putting the early corn on the white flint cob. I pre¬ 
ferred the white flint cob as it was long and small, and 
consequently would not retain the moisture as long as 
the large cob. I therefore on the 20th of June, 1838, 
planted several rows of the white flint, leaving one-half 
of the ground for the early corn, which was planted on 
the 1st day of July ; and the earliest ears were ripe 
enough to pick for seed on the 16th of September. The 
product was a sulphur colored corn, produced by pulling 
the tassels from the white flint, and allowing the silks 
of that corn to be impregnated by the tassels of the yel¬ 
low corn. I planted that corn in 1839, and the product 
was on every edr, a mixture of pure white and pure 
yellow kernels. In 1840 I planted the yellow and white 
kernels each by themselves, and the product was a pure 
white and a pure yellow ear. My corn was planted in 
1840, on the 16tli of May, and on the 20th of August it 
was ripe enough to cut by the roots. It was planted on 
land very much worn, and as I had no help, I was com¬ 
pelled to plant it without manure, as I could not ma¬ 
nure both potato and corn ground. I also planted quite 
thick, from which causes the ears were not as long as 
they would have been under more favorable circumstan¬ 
ces, but I had no soft corn. I send you an ear of each 
color. •— 
An Experiment in the Culture of Potatoes. 
I see there is great complaints from some persons in 
relation to the Rohan potato ; and one gentleman goes 
so far as to pronounce it a humbug. When a seedsman 
or other person knowingly sells a worthless seed to the 
farmer, he should be censured, and I will not complain 
if they are severely handled ; but we should be very 
cautious how we censure a person without abundant 
evidence of his guilt, and I am inclined to think the 
fault is in the culture rather than in the potato in this 
instance. My crop of Rohans the past season was good, 
and my other kinds are almost an entire failure ; but I 
could account for the failure without attributing it to the 
variety. I had seen it stated that potatoes would be 
some days earlier, if exposed to the sun for several days 
before covering. I therefore concluded to furrow three 
acres, and drop them all before covering any. I had 
potatoes which had been cut two weeks, which I drop¬ 
ped first, and the rest of the piece was cut and dropped 
immediately ; when I had finished, I commenced cov¬ 
ering with a plow, covering in the opposite direction 
from which they were dropped ; there are 50 rows of 
40 rods in length, 10 of which were covered the day I 
finished dropping ; 20 the next day, 10 the next, and the 
balance two days after ; the result was, those that were 
covered the day they were dropped, were a good yield, 
and those which lay for four or five days, almost entire¬ 
ly failed to grow ; those which were cut sometime pre¬ 
vious to dropping, did not fail near as bad as those 
which were cut at the time of dropping. The weather 
during the whole time of planting, was excessively 
warm, which undoubtedly caused the loss of the crop. 
The season was not favorable to the potato crop in this 
section of the country, yet there were individual crops 
which were very good, several of which were of the 
Rohans ; in some instances two bushels have been rai¬ 
sed from a single potato. Yours respectfully. 
S. PORTER RHOADES. 
Skaneateles, N. Y. Feb. 6, 1841. 
