In 1866, Mr. Ponting went to Abilene, Kansas, to buy some feeders. He purchased about 700, sold them the next spring, making a good profit. He repeated the Kansas purchase the next year with like success. In 1868, he took the cattle he had bought in Kansas to Albany. They numbered around 800. In 1870, he went back down into Texas and bought cattle as he had done in 1852. He found a herd of about 2500, out of which he bought all of the two and three year olds. These numbered about 850, for which he paid $16 per head. There had been a new railroad, just finished, from St. Louis through Missouri, close to the Indian Territory line to a place called Pierce City. The railroad officers had some agents trying to get a contract to carry these cattle, together with some other cattle belonging to Hall brothers, over the new road. They billed the cars, numbering 80 in all, with a contract to refund $50 per car. They did this to get the contract which made a big showing before some New York magnates, who were there at the time trying to buy stock in the new railroad. In 1876, Mr. Ponting visited a Shorthorn sale at Springfield and bought several head of cattle with which he started a Shorthorn herd. In the spring of 1880, he attended another Shorthorn sale at Chicago, where he bought a few more Shorthorns to add to his herd. Until his first purchase of Shorthorns, Mr. Ponting's operations had been entirely along the line of buying and feeding and although he did a small pure bred business from this time on, he continued his feeding operations as he had done in previous years, although probably not on as large a scale. Mr. Ponting had not been in the Shorthorn business very long until he became interested in Herefords. In the fall of 1880, he visited the fair at St. Louis, where he purchased four Herefords. In the spring of the next year, Mr. W. H. Sotham of Guelph, Canada, bought four more Herefords for him. In the fall of 1882, he sold out all of his Shorthorns, thereby severing his relations with this breed. In 1886, Mr. Ponting made a contract with the Wyoming Hereford Association to sell them 270 head of Hereford cattle, to be delivered in the spring of 1887. The firm paid for a part of them and Mr. Ponting took a note for a few more. About 60 were left on his hands and had to be sold for beef. As a result, he lost about $800 on the deal, which killed all of his profits. Mr. Ponting continued in the Hereford business until 1903, when he decided to retire from actual business. In the summer, a gentleman came from Iowa and bought his entire Hereford cattle trade. He had at this time about 3700 acres of land, 1500 acres of which were in Christian county. He decided to divide his property among his children, keeping a sufficient amount to support Mrs. Ponting and himself. He bought a home in Moweaqua, where he and Mrs. Ponting have lived happily ever since.