SHORT-HORNS AND HEREFORDS.

West Coast Times, Issue 3055, 18 January 1879, Page 2 (Supplement)

SHORT- HORNS AND HEREFORDS.

Both in this couatry and aoross the Atlantic, the opinion has of late years been gaining strength that too muoh weight has been attached by breeders of Suort -horns to fanoy strains, to the neglect of proper regard for the individual merits of eaoh animal. Henoa the enormous price that has often been given for some animal of a partioular family, whose conformation was inferior to that of a muoh oheaper Short-horn, belonging to a family less highly esteemed. So far has this craze been oarried, that many excellent judges of stock maintain that within the last few years the raoe of Shorthorns has aotually deteriorated instead of improved. ;iu England Bpeoial attention has recently been drawn to this subject by the triumph of two Herefords over all other breeds, at the Bath and West of England Cattle Show, held at Oxford. Of Herefords there were only three at the fair, while of the Short-horns there were thirteen of the bull class alone ; yet the Hereford ball, Grateful, was awarded the prize over the Short-horn, Sir Arthur Ingram, an animal famous at other shows and here selected by the Snorthorn judges as the best of his race, Ia the same manner the conolaveof judges awarded to the Hereford heifer, Leonora, the championship over the Short-horn, Diana, confessedly the best of the Short-horns at the fair. It would seem that while the admirers of Shorthorns have lately been content to dwe.l on what their favourites have been, the breeders of Herefords have been 'diligently selecting and mating the best individual animals so as to advance the standard of the breed. ,