264 Transactions of the 



lion as to th'e true value of each class of stock to the human family to 

 sustain life — or in plain words, to furnish food and the necessaries as well 

 as the luxuries for all the human family, the cattle must get the medal. 

 I think it will only be necessary to call your attention to a few facts 

 to prove this. Beef, butter, cheese, cream, and milk go into the con- 

 sumption, in whole or in part, in every family throughout the Christian 

 world. Take your wealthy man, deprive him of the produce of the cow, 

 what he terms the real luxuries of life, and what would supply its place — 

 would the horse, sheep, or in fact any other or all other stock? They 

 would not. Then come down to a poor man with a family — give him a 

 cow, and there is food to raise his children on — and that of the best. 

 The truth is, that more poor families are kept from poverty and suffer- 

 by the produce of the cow, than from any other one source, and 

 sometimes, than from all others. Here I have only mentioned a few of 

 the benefits of the cow. . Just take, for instance, the item of leather — 

 what an amount of trade it produces in a single year — what comforts it 

 gives, and how universally it is used and in a variety of ways. Then 

 the tallow is used for many valuable purposes. Even the bones, horns, 

 and hoofs are valuable. I\ow look back through these various channels 

 and see their magnitude. Beef feeding its millions, rich and poor feast- 

 ing upon it. The same to be said of cheese, butter, cream and milk; 

 the rich using them and esteeming them a great luxury; the poor man 

 taking great care of his cow from the fact that she ffives more and 

 better food for his wife and little ones than ten times the amount in- 

 vested in anything else. Now let me ask you to look at this matter 

 through all its. bearings in reference to the human family. Can you 

 compute the amount it produces in money in a single year even in the 

 United States, let alone the world? This is only the cash view of 

 the matter. Now if you will make an attempt to estimate the bless- 

 ings it produces to mankind in the matter of food to sustain life, in 

 luxuries and in the real comforts, they swell up in magnitude until the 

 mind becomes wearied. Now I ask is there anv other single class of 

 stock that would begin to supply their jjlace. You can have but one 

 answer — that is no. Then cattle should have the preference. First, 

 because the}' made the best exhibition; secondly, because they are 

 worth more to man; and lastly, as I made the best exhibition in that 

 department I ought to have the gold medal awarded to my stock. 



There is another interesting view to be taken of this subject. Look 

 at the nations of the earth and contrast them. Take those that use the 

 greatest quantity of beef, and at a single glance you can see their superi- 

 ority, physically and intellectually. Look at the beef eating English. 

 What nation in Europe, or elsewhere, are their equals in everything 

 that go to make up the elements of a great people. Cooped up on a 

 small island, their commerce extends to every part of the earth; their 

 sails whiten every ocean. It is an old saying that " Briton rules the 

 waves." Her soldiers have fought in every clime, and have conquered 

 in nearly every instance. Their only failure was when she attacked the 

 Yankee nation. It took a second trial to convince them that we were a 

 beef eating people ourselves. What has their intellect, industry, and 

 enterprise done for themselves and the world? .Look at their manufac- 

 tories of every kind — railroads, great public improvements; their vast 

 capital meandering through every clime, entering into every pursuit of 

 life; their language is fast becoming universal. I contend that the 

 nations of the earth are superior to each other in proportion to the 

 difference of beef consumed. 



