SHOKT-HORN BREEDERS' ASSOCIATION. 319 



tlie discussion of the subject assigned Mrs. Meredith, I felt that my part 

 of the duty would be very light, because I was sure she would cover the 

 ground so completely there would be little for me to do. I thinli you will 

 all admit she has done so. 



I thinli the short-horn breed of cattle is the best, not only for the 

 Indiana farmer, but for the American farmer. I think the farmers of 

 Ohio, Iowa, Missouri, or any other state where domesticated animals are 

 bred, would be benefited by the use of short-horn blood in their herds, 

 as well as the Indiana farmer. It seems to me this is a fact so well 

 linown and accepted by everybody that it is a difficult matter to discuss 

 it. I thinii the short-horn Is the best breed oi cattle for the American 

 farmer, for two reasons: First, because of its dual purpose characteris- 

 tics, and, second, because of its great ability to adapt itself to every con- 

 dition of environment wherever domesticated animals are bred. 



Our shows of recent date have proven very conclusively the gi-eat 

 ability of the short-horn to produce milli and butter. This was shown 

 especially in the fairs held at Chicago and at St. Louis. Our fairs every- 

 where show what the short-horn can do as a beef producing animal. The 

 farmer, as a rule, is a man who has a small area of land and he is not 

 able to own an animal especially and one that will produce butter and 

 milk; he wants an animal that will produce both, and we know there 

 is no animal of the bovine kind on the face of the earth that will do 

 both these things so successfully as the short-horn. The short-horn 

 will produce all the milk and butter the farmer needs, and at the same 

 time will produce a calf that will make the very best beef on the market. 



Senator Harris spoke this afternoon of the first short-horn he ever 

 saw. The first short-horn bull I ever saw was one called Gold Dust, a 

 light roan animal bred by George Bedford, of Kentucky. I was a little 

 fellow of about five when I first saw that bull on a farm between my 

 home and my grandfather's. At that time and for years after we had 

 In this State nothing but short-horn cattle. When I commenced feeding 

 steers all the steers I got were high grade short-horns, and I wish to say 

 now that the steers I started to feed twenty-five and thirty years ago 

 were fifty per cent, better than they are in Indiana today. Why is that? 

 At that time there was no beef breed known in this coimtry except the 

 short-horn breed. At that time the sliort-horns had been in this country 

 from fifty to seventy-five years. Mrs. Meredith's father, the late General 

 " Meredith, and Dr. Stevenson, of my county, imported cattle into this State 

 sixty years ago. The Hereford was not known in this countr5% nor were 

 the various breeds of black cattle; but we bred the short-horns on the 

 grade cows of the country and upon themselves and produced a class 

 of steers that we have not today in this country, I will say by fifty per 

 cent. 



I believe the short-horns are the best cattle we have. We had a show 

 at St. Louis this fall. Dr. Quick spoke of it this afternoon. It was not 



