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National Geographic : 1925 Dec
Contents
672 THE NATIONAL GEC Culbertson and Thomas Clark, of Illinois; Earl & Stuart and William S. Van Natta, of Indiana. American breeders essayed the task of in troducing finer finish. The heads and horns, as well as the hind quarters, were improved, largely by resort to the concentration of blood of animals possessing the desired points, and at the present time it may be said that the American Hereford is more uniform in type and symmetry than his English progenitors. The fact that 1,423,483 head of purely bred Herefords have been registered by the Ameri can Hereford Cattle Breeders' Association, and that this great expansion has taken place in comparatively recent years, demonstrates what a remarkable hold the "white-faces" have obtained in this their adopted country. The secretary of the association, which boasts 12,208 stockholders and the patronage of 6,ooo breeders not members of the organization, computes that there are at the present writing more than 400,000 registered Hereford cattle in the United States. He claims that there are more than 400,000 registered Hereford cattle service here-20,000 more than of any other registered beef breed-and 25 States are sup posed to have more registered Herefords than registered cattle of any other beef breed. Good herds are still maintained in the New England States and steady progress is being recorded throughout the entire South. In the Western America trade, Texas and the Southwest have become the favorite breed ing grounds, although fine herds for the pro duction of "seed stock" for use upon the range are also maintained in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and the Dakotas. A dominant feature of cattle-feeding in the Corn Belt proper at the present time is the shipment of Southwestern-bred Hereford calves into the feedlots of the Central valleys, to be finished as "baby beef" for the Chicago, Kan sas City, and Omaha markets. In South America the Hereford is exten sively used in connection with operations upon leading estancias in Argentina, Uruguay, and southern Brazil. In Australia and in the South African Cape colonies the breed has also been successfully introduced. In fact, wherever grass grows, and especially wherever a forlorn hope has to be led in range operations, the hardy Hereford has made fast friends. POLLED HEREFORDS In 1898, at the Trans-Mississippi Exposition, at Omaha, there were exhibited by W. W. Guthrie, Atchison, Kansas, under the name of Polled Kansans, some naturally hornless cattle carrying the color markings and possessing considerable of the type of standard Here fords. They were the result of mating pure bred Hereford cows to a "muley" bull possess ing a white face and red body, but of unknown ancestry, presumably, however, a Polled Short horn-Hereford cross. Seeing these cattle, and also some crossbred Red Polled-Hereford calves on his own farm, gave Mr. Warren Gammon, of Des Moines, )GRAPHIC MAGAZINE Iowa, the idea of the value of a naturally hornless strain of purebred Herefords, if it could be developed. Mr. Gammon learned that "sports," "variations," or "freaks" are con stantly occurring among all species of plants and animals, and that by proper matings such "sports" can be propagated true to the new type. He therefore determined to search for such a "sport" purebred Hereford that would differ from the standard Hereford only in the lack of horns. A circular inquiry, sent in the fall of 190o to about 2,500 members of the American Here ford Cattle Breeders' Association, brought re plies indicating that fourteen such hornless purebred and recorded Herefords were in ex istence, four being bulls and ten cows. The four bulls and seven of the cows were pur chased as an experimental foundation herd. In addition to the polled cows, a number of registered horned Hereford cows were mated with the polled bulls. The progeny from these matings showed that nearly all calves from polled sires and polled dams were hornless, as were about half those from polled bulls and horned cows. From this foundation herd the present breed or strain of Polled Herefords has been developed. When it was demonstrated that polled bulls would sire polled calves from horned cows, the pioneer and his associates immediately as sembled herds of registered horned Hereford females of desirable blood lines, and as fast as polled bulls were available they were put in service with these horned cows. The new strain was thus very rapidly increased in num bers until now, at the end of 24 years, there are upward of 50,000 Polled Herefords re corded in the American Polled Hereford Record. Polled Herefords have spread into every State in the Union save Delaware and New Jersey, and have been exported to Canada, Mexico, South America, Hawaii, the Philip pines, and Australia. The American Polled Hereford Breeders' Association, the national breed organization. has enrolled more than 2,000 members, and there are in excess of 12,000 herds of cattle in the United States headed by Polled Hereford bulls. Springing from "sports" occurring among purebred Herefords, the polled breed differs in no way from standard Herefords except in the possession of the polled character. With the recognized advantages of the hornless head in beef production, they have met with favor wherever introduced. Because of limited num bers and the resulting higher prices, they have only recently gone to the Western ranges in any considerable numbers, but during the last few seasons they have been in strong demand from that section. THE JERSEY (For illustration,see Color Plate XII) On the French side of the English Channel, within sight of the west coast of Normandy, lie the Channel Islands. Formerly they be-
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