SlIORTlTORN BREEDERS ASSOCIATION. 199 



ports? Is the standard higher than our home-bred cattle? We have 

 been importing now for about one hundred years, and I think we should 

 now be able to breed as good cattle as any European country. I once 

 asked a European horse breeder in Chicago why, after we had imported 

 their stock here, they would come back for it, and he said we could 

 put bone on it here that they could not. Now, why do we pay these 

 large prices to other countries when our breeding stock seems to be at 

 the top now? 



Capt. Welsh: I saw a num1)er of imported cattle in Canada that in 

 our shows rings here would not stand anywhere: they would be so far 

 down you could not see tlu-ni. I am saying this with all due respect to 

 our Canadian friends, but I saw some imported cattle there that sur- 

 prised me to think a man would pay for bringing them over. We saw a 

 number of home-bred cattle there that were as good as anj'^ I have ever 

 seen. The imported stock I saw there were not better than the home- 

 bred I saw there or our home-bred stock. Possibly it is better to bring 

 over some fresh blood uoav and then, and then I think we all know the 

 three letters '"Imp." lu'ings us a little extra price. I am glad that both 

 sides are importing, but I doiTl think any of the imported cattle are 

 superior to our cattle or the Canadian cattle. 



.Mr. Donley: If we are continually paying out large sums of money 

 for these three letters, wliy do Ave do it? 



Capt. Welsli: We are not all doing it, but those of us who do, get a 

 lot of money from this stock. 



Mr. Donley: Why do we do that? 



Capt. Welsh: That question is on you, I think, 



Mr, Donley: 1 want to know what you think about it. 



Capt. Welsh: You ask why we pay more? Because we can sell for 

 more. When a gentleman comes to look through our herds I think we are 

 apt to say, "This is an imported heifer," or "This is an imported cow," 

 I say that, and I think you all do. 



Mr. Donley: I think we want the cattle that have the greatest merit, 

 whether they are imported or home bred. So far as the best Shorthorn 

 cattle are concerned. I think they are found in the United States. I 

 don't thiidi any country in the world has l)etter cattle with the same 

 treatment. I ihink, too, we have more of them. Mr. Dryden said a 

 year ago he thought tiiere were more good cattle in the United States 

 than anywhere else. I'ndouhtedly Ave will all agree that Shorthorn cat- 

 tle are the Ix'st cattle in tlie world, and if we will leave out this fad of 

 importing cattle, I think we will do even better, het us get down to 



