HEREFORDS AND SHORTHORNS.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1834, 8 January 1880, Page 3

HEREFORDS AND SHORTHORNS.

["National Live Stock Journal."] Their beef brings a good price in the market, although it is not so well marbled as that of some ether breeds, even in the lower conntry. They tend to accumulate fat upon the rump, but not in the same degree as the longhorns. They fatten readily, and on ordinary food, and hence the general estimation in which the oxen are held for the purpose of grazing. Although a docile race, the bulls frequently become vicious when old. The cows, like the Devons, are small as compared with the size which the oxen attain. They are likewise indifferent milkers, so that this breed is rarely employed in the regular dairy. . . . The Hereford breeders naturally set a high value upon this breed. They esteem it the finest in England. It has indeed many excellent properties for the grazier ; but the general judgment of breeders has long been pronounced in favor of another breed, likewise perfected by the skill of the breeder—the shorthorned (Teeswater) or, as it is now frequently termed, the Durham breed. This has for many years been progressively extending, and been carried even within the native districts of the Herefords. The Herefords will frequently pay the 1 graziers better than the Durhams ; but the value of a breed is to be determined, not by the profit it yields between buying and selling, but by that which it yieldß to the breeder and feeder conjointly ; and taking into account the early maturity of the shorthorns and the weight to which they arrive, it may without error be asserted that they merit the preference which has been given to them.

In reference to the special value of the shorthorns, the same high authority has the following:— The multiplication in this country of a breed so greatly improved by art, must be regarded as highly conducive to the improvement of this branch of rural industry. _ A large part of the cattle of England consists of a mixture of races, having no uniformity of characters, and generally defective in some important points. The possession of a breed which can always be resorted to for crossing these mixed and defective races, is a great mean of improvement, applicable to a class of animals that require it the most, causing the larger cattle of the country to approach a better model and assume a greater degree of uniformity. Further, the extension of the pure breed, and the.multipliction of its numbers, are conducive in a high degree to its own permanence and improve ment. When but few cultivators of it were to be found, the system of breeding from animals of the came family, and from the nearest affinities of blood, could scarcely be avoided by those who wished to preserve their stock from deterioration ; but now so many fine animals are reared of the same race that no one is laid under the necessity of breeding solely from a few individuals ; and in the future cultivation of the breed hardiness, soundness of constitution, and the milking properties of the females may all receive their due share of attention. The external form has been already brought to all the perfection which art seems capable of communicating, and now those other properties remain to be attended to, without which no further refinement of breeding will avail for the purposes of profit to individuals and benefit to the country. The following extracts are from the last English edition of Youatt's work. Speaking of the Hereford cows, he observes : They are far worse milkers than the Devons. This is so generally acknowledged, that while there are many dairies of Devon cows in various parts of the country (none of which, however, are very profitable to their owners), a dairy of Herefords is rarely to be found. To compensate for this, they are even more kindly feeders than the Devons, and will live and grow fat where the Devon would scarcely live. Their beef may be objected to by some as being occasionally too large in the bone, and the forej quartern being coarse and heavy ; but the

meat of the best pieces is often very fine grained and beautifully marbled. There are few cattle more prized in the market than the genuine Hereford. The Devons and Herefords are both excellent breeds, and the prejudices of the Devonshire and Herefordshire farmers for their peculiar breeds being set aside, the cross of the one will often materially improve the other. The Devon will acquire bulk and hardihood, and the Hereford a finer form and activity. . . . The Hereford cow is apparently a very inferior animal. Not only is she no milker, but even her form has been sacrificed by the breeder. Herefordshire is more a rearing than a feeding county, and therefore the farmer looks mostly to the shape and value of his young stock ; and in the choice of his cow he does not value her, or select her, or breed from her according to her milking qualities or the price which the grazier would give for her, but in proportion as she possesses that general form which experience has taught him will render her likely to produce a good ox. Hence the Hereford cow is comparatively small and delicate, and some would call her ill made. She is very light fleshed when in common condition, and beyond that, while she is breeding, she is not suffered to proceed ; but when she is actually put up for fattening she spreads out and accumulates fat at a most extraordinary rate.

In speaking of the persistence of the characteristics of the Galloway breed, Youatt observes that

The shorthorns almost everywhere else have improved the cattle of the districts to which they have travelled. They have, at least, in the first cross, produced manifest improvement, although the advantage has not often been prolonged much beyond the second generation; but even in the first cross the shorthorns have done little good in Galloway. As to the general excellence of the shorthorn for the production of beef and milk, the following is quoted from the same high authority:— The number of cows kept for the purpose of supplying the metropolis and its environs with milk is about 12,000. They are, with very few exceptions, of the shorthorn breed —the Holderness and Yorkshire cow—and almost invariably with a cross of the improved Durham blood. The universal preference given to this breed by such a body of men, differing materially on many branches of the treatment of cattle, is perfectly satisfactory as to their value, and that on three distinct points. First, as to the quantity of milk. This we need not press, for the enemies of the shorthorns have never contested this point. There is no cow which pays so well for what she consumes, in the quantity of milk that she returns. This, however, is not all, though it may be the principal thing which enters into the calculation of the metropolitan dairymen The proprietor of the large dairy is also a dealer in cream, to a considerable extent, among these people ; he is also a great manufactuier of butter—for he must have milk enough to answer every demand, and that demand is exceedingly fluctuating ; then it is necessary that the quality of the milk be good, in order that he may turn the overplus to profitable account in the form of cream and butter.

The employment of the shorthorn cow in all the dairies is convincing proof that her milk is not so poor as some have described it to be. It is the practice in most of the dairies to fatten a cow as soon as her milk becomes leas than four quarts a day. They are rarely suffered to breed while in the dairyman's possession. The fact of their being so often changed is proof that while the cow gives a remunerating quantity of milk for a certain time, she is rapidly and cheaply fattened for the butcher as soon as her milk is dry. Were much time or money employed in preparing her for market, this system should not answer, and would not be so universally adopted. Fattening and milking properties can therefore combine in the same animal, and they do so here. C. T. JONES. Delaware, Ohio.