“We notice in Monday’s issue the arrival, by the Cunard steamer Abyssinia, of a cow fed upon the prairies of Nebraska (U.S.), and of an antelope from the same State,” said the Daily Post of Liverpool, England. “The antelope a female, is an exceedingly beautiful animal, and, we are given to understand, has been brought up as a pet. It is to be sent to Wrington Park, near Bristol, to become a member of the deer park of that place.”
The article, reprinted in the Central Union Agriculturist and Missouri Valley Farmer of Omaha in March 1873, continued: “The practical item of the importation is, however, the cow, which has been brought over by Mr. C. R. Schaller, the European agent of the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad Company, for the purpose of showing what meat can be produced by feeding upon the wonderfully fertile land of Nebraska State. It was originally intended that the animal should have been brought to England in time for exhibition at the Smithfield Club Christmas Show, but circumstances, principally the terrible weather on the Atlantic prevented the carrying out of this arrangement.
“We had an opportunity of seeing the animal in the cow-house of the Abyssinia, now lying in the Huskiston Dock. Her condition, considering the voyage, was wonderful, and testifies to the great care which must have been taken of her during her voyage. She is an animal of remarkable beauty and has been bred, not for milking, but for beef making purposes. Her form is the perfection of what one is accustomed to look for in the prize beasts of a cattle show. She is a Durham short-horn with an honorable pedigree, which has been inscribed in the American Herd Book, and one of her ancestors went out from England many years since. She is about four years old, and is one of a herd of one hundred which have been fed entirely upon the prairie grass of Nebraska.
“She was presented to the Burlington Company by a Mr. Jones, of Crete, Nebraska, who was formerly a resident at Wrington, near Bristol. The animal whose name is Beauty, is, we understand, to be exhibited shortly in Liverpool, when the curious on such matters will have an opportunity of judging of the sort of stock that is raised in the great Western States of America. Such opportunities do not often occur, as the expense and trouble of bringing so valuable an animal so many thousands of miles by rail and sea are more considerable than people imagine.
“After she has been exhibited in Liverpool, it is the intention of Mr. Schaller to submit her to the inspection of the London connoisseurs. Her final destination is Wrington. It is intended to allow the poor at that place to have the first chance of testing what prairie-fed beef is like.”
(April 2009)
