cheek thin. The chest deep and full. The bosom sufficiently prominent. The shoulder-bone thin, flat, and sloping towards the chine, well covered on the outside with mellow flesh; kernel full up from the shoulder-point to the throat, and so beautifully do the shoulder-blades bend into the body that it is difficult to tell, in a well-fed animal, where they are set on. The chine and loin broad; legs straight and small. The rump forming a straight line with the back, and at a right angle with the thigh, which should be full of flesh down to the hock, without exuberance; twist good, and well filled with flesh even with the thigh. The ribs should spring well and deep, level with the shoulder-point; the flank full, and the whole carcass well and evenly covered with a rich, mellow flesh, distinguishable by its yielding with a pleasant elasticity to the touch. The hide thick, yet mellow, and well covered with soft, glossy hair, having a tendency to curl."

THE HEREFORDS AS WORKERS.

From reference already made in this article to the specifications in regard to premiums offered by the Smithfield Club, it will be understood that the Herefords were formerly much used in England for the yoke. In fact, the Club at one time required that all the competing oxen above a certain weight should have been worked. Thus, in 1806, when the oxen and steers were divided into six classes, viz: Herefords, Long-horns, Short-horns, Sussex or Kent, Devons, and Cross-breeds, it was specified that "The animals exhibited for the above premiums must have worked at least two years ending the 1st of January, 1807, and must not have been put to fatten previous to that day." But for the three following years, it appears that no Short-horned or Long-horned oxen were exhibited, except one Short-horn, in 1808, which was disqualified. It is probably fair to infer that the exhibitors of animals of these breeds objected to the requisition in regard to work, for in 1810 it was decided "That the condition respecting Long-horned and Short-horned oxen having been worked, be dispensed with."

Most of the Hereford oxen which received prizes from the Club, for many years from its first exhibition, had undoubtedly performed more or less labor.

But the increasing demand for beef and its high price gradually brought in the horse as a substitute for the ox in farm work, in England, and now the horse is in turn being displaced by steam. So long as oxen were worked, there is no question that the Herefords were considered very valuable for the yoke. Mr. J. M. Read, of Elkstone, near Cirencester, England, informed the writer that for many years he worked constantly about twenty Hereford oxen on his farm; that he several times tried them in comparison with those of other breeds. found them more active and more hardy than the Short-horns, and able to do more work. He gave the preference to the Herefords over all other breeds, and continued to use them till, a few years since, he adopted steam cultivation.

He

In this country very few full-blood Herefords have been worked. Many half-bloods, and occasionally some of a higher grade, have been used in farm labor, and they proved so well that, when offered for sale as working oxen, they brought the highest prices. George Clark, of Springfield, Otsego county, N. Y., who has been breeding full-blood and grade Herefords for many years, and who on one occasion showed fifty head of the grade stock at an exhibition of the New York State Agricultural Society, states that he tried the half and threefourths-bred oxen in comparison with horses at the plough, and that the oxen did as much work as the horses, except in very hot weather.

THE HEREFORDS AS MILKERS.

On this point the Herefords have suffered great injustice in reference to comparisons with other breeds, especially the Short-horns. The unimproved Short-horns, or those which have not been bred particularly for beef, undoubtedly give, when well fed, large quantities of milk; but the Improved Short-horns, in which the fattening propensity is the leading

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characteristic, are at best only moderate milkers. They are in reality as different from the milking Short-horns as though they were of different breeds. No one would think it fair to compare the milking Short-horns with the Herefords for beef, and it is, of course, equally unfair to compare the Herefords with the milking Short-horns for milk, under the pretence that it is a proper test of the two breeds in general. The only fair test, obviously, would be to place the Herefords with the beefmaking Short-horns, and then see if the latter, with equal tendency to fatten, give more milk, or produce more butter, than the Herefords.

The fact is, that no cattle in which the fattening tendency is developed in the greatest degree will at the same time excel in the production of milk. The remarks of the noted Hereford breeder, Mr. John Price, on this subject, are worthy of notice. In a communication published in the Farmer's Magazine, January, 1841, he said: "Experience has taught me that no animals, possessing form and other requisites giving them a great disposition to fatten, are calculated to give much milk; nor is it reasonable to suppose they should; it would be in direct opposition to the laws of nature. Had I willed it twenty years ago, my belief is that I could by this time have bred twenty cows, purely from my own herd, which would have given a sufficient quantity of milk for paying dairy purposes; and I am equally confident that in the same period I could have bred a similar number that would not at any time have given twenty quarts of milk a day among them. I feel confident that I could effect either of these objects more easily and certainly than I could blend the two properties in the same animal,-retaining also the form and quality best calculated to live hard and feed" [fatten].

At the first exhibition of the English Royal Agricultural Society, in 1839, a prize of fifteen sovereigns was offered for the cow "best calculated for dairy purposes "-the competition being open to all breeds in the kingdom. This prize was taken by the Rev. J. R. Smithies, for a Hereford. The second prize

was awarded to a Short-horn. Several other Herefords were entered for the prize; a circumstance which proves that cows were to be had of this breed, in the dairy qualities of which their owners had such confidence as to show them against any others. This was the only occasion on which the Royal Society has brought the different breeds into competition with each other, the class having been from that time abolished.

Mr. Smythies, in a communication to the Mark Lane Express, Feb. 5th, 1849, discussing the merits of the Herefords as milkers, said: "I have seen Hereford cows milk well, and had one myself which made eleven pounds of butter a week for three months." This may have been the cow on which he received the above-mentioned prize, though this is not stated. But he observes that beef is much more profitable in his section than dairy products, and that on this account "it is not an object with the Hereford breeders to have good milkers." This is undoubtedly the fact, and it explains why Hereford breeders have not paid more attention to milking properties in their cattle. Mr. Duckham, in his lecture, says that in the dairy counties, where the milking properties of the cow are well attended to, the most satisfactory results are realized. He quotes from a letter of Mr. Read, to whose experience with the Herefords as workers reference has been made, the statement that "they have been used for dairy purposes for nearly half a century upon the farm," and that he believes they yield a larger return than could be obtained from any other breed upon a similar class of land.

Mr. Duckham also quotes from a letter of Mr. Mappowder, of Dorsetshire, whose herd of Herefords has been formed thirty years. He states that the stock has much improved since he obtained it, and that "Hereford dairies are becoming very common in the country." He adds: "In proof that they are good for milk, we let nearly 100 cows to dairy people, and if I buy one of any other breed to fill up the dairy, they always grumble, and would rather have one of our own bred heifers. We let our cows at so much per year, finding land

and making the hay." Mr. D. also quotes from a Cornwall correspondent, who says that according to his experience the Herefords are good milkers, and that he is convinced that when the cows are deficient in their yield of milk, "it does not arise from any constitutional defect, but rather from mismanagement in rearing, or a deficiency of the constituents essential to the production of milk in their food. My cow Patience,'” he continues, "bred by Mr. J. Y. Cooke, Moreton House, Hereford, has this summer given 14 lbs. of butter per week; and 'Blossom,' bred by the late Mr. Langmore, Salop, gave 22 quarts of milk, yielding 21⁄2 lbs. of butter per day,"-equal to 171⁄2 lbs. of butter per week. The same correspondent says: "I consider the Herefords are peculiarly adapted to this humid, fickle climate, where Devons become small and delicate, and Short-horns grow bony and coarse. When grazed upon the granite moors, I have invariably found them do better than the Devons when running together. I rear my calves on skim milk."

THE HEREFORDS IN AMERICA.

There have been comparatively few importations of Herefords into this country. The first of which we have any account was that of the late Hon. Henry Clay, of Kentucky, consisting of two bulls and two heifers, imported in 1817. It is at least doubtful whether they were of the most esteemed families of Herefords. In an account of them, written by Mr. Clay for the Baltimore American Farmer, in 1822, he stated that the price paid for the four, in England, was £105 sterling. It would naturally be inferred from this that they were not from a herd of the highest repute. Mr. Clay states that one of the bulls died on his journey from Baltimore to Kentucky, and it is understood that the increase from the other was not large.

In 1824, Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin, of the Royal Navy, a native of the island of Nantucket, presented to the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture, a Hereford bull and heifer. They were bred by Sir J. G. Cotterel, whose stock was from Mr. Yarworth, and his from Benj. Tomkins, the first noted