SHORT-HOKN BREEDERS' ASSOCIATION. 301 



cattle; she will not take calves, she will not take young things that have 

 not become developed. The broad-gauge men of England today are com- 

 plaining bitterly of the injury that is being done to England by the con- 

 stant influx of her very best cattle into the Argentine Republic. We have 

 no cattle to spare for Argentina and we have none to spare for Mexico. 

 It seems to me the breeders of Southern Indiana ought to have their 

 eyes opened to the possibility of our Gulf States. They are crying for 

 short-horn cattle in those states. There are difficulties in the way of 

 sending them there. They must be inoculated and they must be ac- 

 climated; but to Americans difficulties are simply things to be overcome. 

 I do not see why there should not be an enormous increase in the trade of 

 Southern Indiana with the Gulf States. Tne distance to ship is short, 

 and Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi are all crying for something to 

 take the place of the scrubs that prevail there. 



Live-stock husbandry is the foundation of everything, for without it 

 there is no possibility of maintaining the fertility of the soil. The land 

 of a country devoted especially to one crop becomes worn out. The land 

 in the Gulf States has been worn out, and a great deal of it is no longer 

 cultivated, but is being covered with scrub pine. In the Northwest, where 

 most of the country was devoted to wheat-growing, they are beginning to 

 appreciate the fact that live stock raising is necessary to maintain the 

 fertility of the soil. My own state has learned the lesson that they can 

 not exist simply by growing wheat. There are places where wheat has 

 been raised continuously for twenty to thirtj- years, until the soil has been 

 absolutely robbed of fertilitj', and now thej' are going back to grass and 

 cattle. 



I want to urge upon the 'breeders present to do everything possible 

 to maintain the intrinsic, absolute merit of your cattle. Discard all 

 fashion and artificiality. Short-horn breeders, as a rule, are level-headed 

 men, yet some of them, when they come to choose sires for their cattle, 

 have as many whims as ,a lady choosing a bonnet. A man came to see 

 my herd some years ago, and after looking it over very carefully said: 

 "I have not been able to find a single bull here that is absolutely without 

 any white hairs." I told him I sincerely hoped he never would find one. 

 Roan is the distinguishing mark of a short-horn. It is the hall mark of 

 the short-horn breed and therefore I esteem it very highly. I believe 

 cattle bred for a number of years simply for the sake of the red color 

 will be sure to deteriorate. The fairs and practical use everywhere have 

 demonstrated to the satisfaction of the most enthusiastic red maniac of 

 twenty years ago that there is nothing in that, and now wp have no trou- 

 ble about the roans; we no longer find men discarding animals because 

 they have white hairs. We have worn out that fallacy, and we will wear 

 out the fallacy that we have to go back to the Scotch all the while. 1 

 believe in American men and I believe in American cattle, but if we can 

 not reach the point where we can go on breeding cattle here as good as 



