Judging Cattle in the Show-Ring. 11 



prophets in breeding may become the standing ground of the 

 great mass of breeders. Altogether too large a per cent, of our 

 animals, of all breeds, must be stamped purposeless, partly from 

 lack of skilled breeding, but more for want of skilled breeders. 

 The standard of every breed is to be measured by the highest 

 level reached by any individual breeder who seeks to secure and 

 fix the essential qualities recognized by the fancier, ard those 

 also demanded in the actual tests which determine merit. The 

 unmistakable evidence of marked family characteristics only 

 emphasizes the lesson of the hour. 



Animal life, like clay, yields readily to the hand and eye of the 

 skilled worker, but, as the standard rises, the plastic nature be- 

 comes more positive in its type, as it grafts on the mental con- 

 ceptions of the man at the head. Gentlemen, the day has ar- 

 rived when the true breeder must be reckoned an artist, for un- 

 der his touch he is painting color of hair, skin and membrane, 

 shaping form, developing beauty and perfecting symmetry^ 

 while all the time intensifying those organs which alone can in- 

 sure rapid and heavy production or growth. Alongside the 

 great painters and singers are to be placed the seers in breeding, 

 who have founded herds and established families noted not only 

 for breed and type characteristics, but alike for great individual 

 worth as producers. They fill the stalls in every breeding estab- 

 lishment, they are multiplying on every hillside, they are adding 

 wealth to the farm homes of the world, and, more than all, they 

 are waiting to be led out into larger fields of service as men come 

 Into clearer appreciation of fundamental principles governing de- 

 velopment. 



Consciously, or unconsciously, we measure an article, indi- 

 vidual or animal, at the first glance. Why we like or dislike we 

 may not be able to state, but the impression is there, and future 

 examinations seldom change the result. This intuitive perception 

 may be more keen in the minds of some than others, but it is the 

 safeguard of the world. Out of it have come the results of the 

 present in every field. Searching for the why and how, men have 

 been led out into larger conceptions, where ideals have taken 



