296 BOARD OF AGRICULTUEE. 



has had a very disastrous year. In the last two years commercial cattle 

 have suffered greatly. There has been complaint, in the first place, of bad 

 railroad service. Then we had a great strike in Chicago in the stock 

 yards, and that had very disastrous results. However, this is the time 

 when short-horn breeders ought to take hold of everything concerning 

 proper breeding with firmer energy. This is the time when you can dis- 

 card your surplus cattle; this is the time when you can put your house 

 in order, because these conditions come in waves, and there is as inevi- 

 tably a flood tide as there is an ebb tide. There is an ebb tide today, but 

 the flood tide is sure to come, and when it does come the trade will be 

 for short-horns. There is an increased desire all over the West to raise 

 short-horns. It is a demonstrated fact that the Hereford cattle have not 

 been able to sustain themselves where they have been bred for ten or 

 twelve years in the great herds. The men owning those great herds have 

 all determined to increase the quantity of short-horn blood in their breed- 

 ing cows. It seems as though the short-horn cow is pre-eminently the 

 mother of the whole bovine race. It has been true always and every 

 where, and it is being unmistakably demonstrated in the West. 



I saw a little item in the London Live Stock Journal the other day 

 that interested me. It showed that out of twenty-nine enti-ies in the cross- 

 bred classes, twenty-eight of them either had a short-horn dam or a short- 

 horn sire. The Hereford men seek the short-horn dam, the Angus men 

 and the Galloway men foUoAving the same method. The glory of the' 

 northern part of Scotland in the production of beef has rested principally 

 on the product of the short-horn cow and the Angus bull, or vice versa. 

 They have what our learned professors call free potency to a higher 

 degree than any other breed we know anything about. They improve 

 every breed they touch. That is unmistakably demonstrated by the fact 

 that every attempt to do without it is followed by deterioration. 



Recently I was looking through some old papers and came across a 

 little supplement I published in 1887, at the time I issued a private cata- 

 logue. I have issued one nearly every year for some years. As I looked 

 that over, in view of my coming here, I came to the conclusion that I 

 could find nothing better for a text than a letter which was really written 

 me by Mr. Amos Cruikshank himself. He very seldom wrote for the 

 public, or wrote at great length to his private con-espondents; but I had 

 the pleasure of talking to him several times and of having letters from 

 him from time to time. This letter I printed as a part of my catalogue 

 that year. I think it contains the sum and substance of everything that 

 is really involved in the breeding of short-horn cattle. With your per- 

 mission, I will read it and call attention to a few points: 



"In the breeding of good short-horns some men have aimed at pro- 

 ducing a good type for winning prizes; some look to breeding from a par- 

 ticular line of blood; some pride themselves on having a herd descended 

 from some particular animal; some think nothing of an animal that is 



