230 Missouri Agricultural Rejmrt. 



not possess the essentials we must have in our western cattle. 

 About the same time there had been discovered an old Quaker way 

 up in Scotland. Shorthorns were not indigenous in Scotland, and 

 it is, therefore, absolutely absurd to talk about straight Scotch 

 cattle. There is no such thing. You might as well talk about 

 straight rail fences. They cannot exist. Captain Barclay of Ura 

 was about the first to take the Shorthorns into Scotland from Eng- 

 land. About 1819 Mr. Cruikshank bought some cattle of Captain 

 Barclay of Ura, and he bought them absolutely without reference 

 to pedigree or fashion or family. He said he must have cattle in 

 Scotland which the average farmer could not afford to be without, 

 and it seems to me in that little sentence is all the law and gospel 

 in regard to cattle. Shorthorn breeders today must breed cattle 

 which the farmers around us can not afford to be without. (Ap- 

 plause.) 



Mr. Cruikshank bred them wrong for a great many years. 

 He told me that himself. At the time I was over there on this visit 

 I spoke of, I went to see the old man. We found "Siterton" to be 

 a plain, unpretentious stone house with five or six rooms. On the 

 north side was a plain, substantial stone barn with a few enclos- 

 ures about it. The old man was wandering about them. He had 

 dispersed his herd, but told us the history of each one of the indi- 

 viduals that had made his herd complete and his name famous. 



Now, I commenced importing in 1882 cattle direct from Mr. 

 Cruikshank's herd. I found the cattle I got sired by Roan Gaunt- 

 let, by Pride of the Isle, by Quarantine, were very much superior 

 to those sired by their sons and grandsons. I found that the blood 

 was a little too delicate, was a little infertile, and I brought the 

 question right up to Mr. Cruikshank himself. I said, "Do you 

 not think the time has come when your cattle need fresh blood? 

 Have you not carried this inbreeding to its absolute and extreme 

 limits?" He said, "There can be no question that that is the 

 truth," but he said, "The younger men must do that. I am too old 

 to go out and try the fresh blood, which must necessarily be done." 

 As I recall that instance, I v. ant my friends here to remember that 

 we must do as Mr. Cruikshank did and told us we must do, and not 

 continue to inbreed and inbreed, or we are going to reach the same 

 end precisely. 



This herd, however, had obtained about that time absolute 

 supremacy over the Bates and Booth herds. Notwithstanding 

 their wonderful character and purity, and notwithstanding the de- 

 votion and friendship I would lavish upon them, yet the question 



