172 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



characteristic a good individual can possess is the ability to trans- 

 mit those qualities which he possesses. 



The Chairman : Let us hear from anyone else. 



Mr. Gabbert: I would like to add a few words along that 

 line. I don't know very much about it, but just because I know so 

 little is the reason I am going to talk, too, perhaps. (Applause.) 



Now this question has attracted many a man, and I must say 

 more shorthorn men than advocates of any other breed. Some 

 men will not buy an animal if it is not Scotch topped. Ever so 

 good a one, with a common American pedigree, is not wanted. I 

 have been breeding cattle for twenty-three years, and I never found 

 a pedigree to represent very much. 



Of course, a good pedigree is a pedigree that has an ancestry 

 back of that pedigree that did something in the world, and natural- 

 ly you would suppose that an animal would breed after its parents ; 

 you could not think otherwise. I believe strongly in heredity, and 

 if it were not by that means we would not be able to tell more or 

 less when two animals were likely to nick. That has more to do 

 with breeding than anything else. I venture to say that no breeder 

 with a promiscuous lot of cows, with various kinds of pedigrees, 

 and all may be good individuals, and yet I dare say, with the best 

 bulls he cannot produce good calves from that line of cows ; for it 

 is one of the well known facts in the history of animals that some 

 two lines of breeding will nick and make good animals and some 

 will not at all ; and a breeder by pedigree does not find it out by that 

 alone; he must do so by experience. I would advise any young 

 breeder, if possible, to get a line of cows of one line or breed, and 

 then try to find a sire that will nick with those cows, and to work 

 along that line. This is the only line of success I know. 



The Chairman : Let us hear from some one else on this sub- 

 ject. 



Mr. Kidd — Mr. President: I wish to say a few words, not 

 because I know so much, but because I have become enthusiastic. 

 (Applause.) 



In talking with Mr. Miller last night, after he told me his 

 idea on this subject, I said, I believe you are right. And I do. Let 

 us go back to Mr. Bates and Booth and the gentlemen who bred 

 for individuality. I do not think their experience can be improved 

 on by the present generation. So I think, if a breeder would start 

 right now and let this popular line and fashion business alone, he 

 would not only improve his breed, but make a greater success of 

 the pure bred stock business, and he would help to make more 



