2G Bureau of Farmers' Institutes. 



teristic of the breed to a greater degree than of any other long- 

 wooled breeds of England. 



This aptitude to take on flesh is of vital importance to the beef 

 producer as well as the breeder of show-ring and sale stock. 

 The show-ring type must necessarily keep close to and be largely 

 governed by the practical demands imposed by the feed yard and 

 the block, else the lessons of the show yard and sale ring are 

 without value, if not positively misleading. No one ifi more con- 

 cerned in what constitutes the essential qualities of a good beef 

 animal than the man who breeds and feeds for the block and at- 

 tempts to meet the conditions imposed by the market; for it must 

 be kept in mind that this is the ultimate end of all beef stock, and 

 the best beef animal is the one that carries to the block the high- 

 est excellence and the most profit. This, in a word, is the key- 

 note of the whole problem. 



The Beef Tjrpe. 



There is at the outset a well-defined beef type that admits of 

 less flexibility than is generally supposed. We hear much about 

 the dairy type — and there is a dairy type, fairly clean cut and 

 well defined — but there is also a beef type, more clearly defined 

 and less variable than the dairy type. Common observation and 

 experience confirm this assertion. There are not a few cows of 

 quite positive beef tendencies capable of making very creditable 

 dairy records, and a great many that combine milk and beef to a 

 profitable degree, but a good carcass of beef from a steer of a 

 pronounced dairy type or breed is rarely seen. So clearly and 

 definitely is this beef type established that to depart from it 

 means to sacrifice beef excellence. 



The accompanying illustrations (Figs. 1, 2 and 3) pretty accu- 

 rately represent the ideal beef type. The first is a good repro- 

 duction from a photograph of a prize-winning Angus heifer ex- 

 hibited by Queen Victoria at one of the late Smithfield fat stock 

 shows. The next is a portrait of a high-grade Shorthorn steer, 

 raised as a skim-milk calf at the Iowa Experiment Station He 

 was the best steer in the Chicago yards on a day when there were 



