"CASTALIA."
Beautiful Estate of Murray Boocock.
Among the distinguished citizens of
Albemarle County, none stand higher
for personal integrity than Mr. Murray
Boocock, whose beautiful home "Castalia"
is known throughout the Old
Dominion. Mr. Boocock who is a
native of New York purchased the
farm a few years ago and immediately
set out to bring it up to its present state
of high cultivation, and this he has succeeded
admirably in doing. Mr.
Boocock is a gentleman of indefatigable
energy, sound common sense,
untiring progressiveness and confidence
in the resources of Virginia.
He has made himself very popular
with the people of this section. Fortune
has smiled upon him but it has
not spoiled the man. His career has
been honorable, square and true, and he
is imbued with the determination to
succeed and knows no such word as
fail. At his magnificent home he dispenses
a delightful hospitality. Like
every man Mr. Boocock has his hobby,
and that hobby is pure blooded stock.
He maintains one of the best and most
noted stock farms in America. His
animals are his pride, and his stock is
the finest that experience and money
can secure. He has done more perhaps
than any man in the State to
improve the breed of cattle and is always
ready to give the benefit of his
experience to any one interested in the
great work. Not long after taking up
his residence here Mr. Boocock's attention
was called to the degenerated
and "scrubby" condition of the beef
cattle of the South, and he began to
study the question of the different beef
breeds with a view of trying to bring
about some improvement in this condition
of affairs, After careful research
he came to the decision that
the Herefords were best suited to his
purpose, and recognizing that the best
blood was the surest method of attaining
the standard of beef cattle
desired, he attended the famous
"Sunny Slope" sale of Herefords at
Emporia, Kansas, March 2d, 1898,
where he purchased Imp. Salisbury,
at the highest price ever paid for a
bull at public auction. He then collected
a herd of females, every one of
which is sired by or traces directly to
the most famous sires of present and
former days. The Breeders Gazette
in reference to the above says "the
remarkable Hereford sire, Imp. Salisbury,
76059, (19083) is now demonstrating
the fact that his purchase as a prepotent
[ILLUSTRATION]
sire of great breed character
was based on sound judgment. The
fine lot of calves sired by Salisbury
from the best cows at Sunny Slope,
before he went to head the herd at
Castalia, the Hereford breeding farm
of Murray Boocock, near Keswick,
Virginia, are a wonderfully even lot,
and all show great development.
Their broad backs, well sprung ribs,
deep twist, good quarters, fine bone,
rich coats and neat heads, all prove
the best of ancestry, and the Salisbury
calves at Castalia are giving the same
promises of great future usefulness.
Mr. Boocock established his herd from
some of the finest in America, and his
constant efforts for good stock in general
and the Herefords in particular,
have been rewarded by hundreds of
inquiries from Virginia and the Eastern
and Southern States, and sales into a
number of States already. The more
good stock of any breed sold, the
better for all breeds and all breeders.
Some of the cows in the Castalia herd
are: Shadeland Amber, 63457, by
Earl of Shadeland 22d; Shadeland
Lorna, 63549, by Shadeland 22d,
Judy, 55711, by Peerless Wilton, and
out of a Sir Richard 2d cow; Rosa
6th, 61,000, by Wild Tom, and Bess 2d,
72646, by Cherry Lad, by Cherry
Boy." Mr. Boocock is also the owner
of Lars, Jr., a model animal, showing
"Quality" as his prominent feature
from head to tail. From birth the
bull had a most docile disposition,
matured early and has always been a
good feeder. His sire is Lars 50734.
Second Prize Yearling bull at World's
Fair, First and Champion Prize-Winner
as a two, three and four-year-old
at all the principal fairs; also headed
by the herd winning Grand Sweepstakes
at the great Live Stock Show of
America at Madison Square Garden,
New York City, in 1896. The dam of
Lars, Jr., is Judy 55711 (one of the
breeding cows in the Castalia herd,
and is a regular breeder and excellent
milker), by Peerless Wilton 12774, a
sire of as many prize-winners as any
Hereford bull living, and the dam of
Judy is Jessie 3d 10908, by Sir Richard
2nd 970a, the celebrated sire of prizewinners,
and especially of good breeding
cows. Thus Lars, Jr., may rightfully
be expected to be a sire of good
animals. This herd has been very
successful in the show-ring and has captured
many prizes over competing
herds. At the Southern Interstate Exposition
at Atlanta, Ga., where seventeen
head of show cattle were taken
from this herd, seventeen prizes were
awarded them. The stock at the Castalia
Farm is as fine as mortal man
has ever seen and blue ribbons are the
commonest kind of things there. Mr.
Boocock is President of the Virginia
Hereford Breeders Association, Vice-President
of the Keswick Hunt Club,
and takes an active interest in the
hunting and social events of the charming
Keswick neighborhood, besides
being an enthusiastic worker for good
roads. He is a country gentleman of
the best American type.
The present road situation demands
instant relief. Mr. Murray Boocock
published a letter, dated January 25,
suggesting a county organization
with a view of ultimately securing
State aid, the only practical method of
road building, and is advocated by the
United States Office of Road Inquiry.
Our roads are the worst in the land,
so for heaven's sake let us get to work
and do something in this direction.
