238 Missouri Agricidtural Report. 



day that Mr. J. J. Hill made a very able speech about 'the first of 

 March, and then repeated practically the same thing in Chicago. 

 He said we were exhausting the fertility of our soil. The Ameri- 

 cans are commencing to look to other countries to feed our popu- 

 lation. There is no necessity for anything of the kind. All that is 

 needed is one touch with the magic wand of good prices and intelli- 

 gent agriculture and we can develop our agriculture, and the op- 

 portunity is standing before us today. Missouri is not half set- 

 tled and not half farmed, let me say to you. (Applause.) I tell 

 you there must be a change. We have a number of great big prob- 

 lems before us, and the biggest of all is that we shall hand down 

 to future generations the land unimpaired. We have no right to 

 skim the cream off of this fertile land. We must keep up the fer- 

 tility. We must use intelligent rotation of crops, and graze and 

 breed our live stock intelligently, not in the old haphazard way. 

 I remember when I used to waste more corn than my cattle ate, 

 and the cattle were of every sort and description. Why some of 

 them could eat and eat and eat and not a bit of change would be no- 

 ticeable in them. I remember I had one Holstein steer that I would 

 fill up just as I would a corn crib, and he would not get a bit fatter. 

 We must discriminate. I cannot say a word against breeding 

 dairy cattle, and in proximity to towns, the specialized dairy cattle 

 are of great value, and let me tell you right here that all the great 

 dairy herds in England are Shorthorns. They are bred there for 

 the perpetuation and development of that quality. 



Why cannot some of our Shorthorn men fall in line and do 

 in this country what they have done over there. Let us have a 

 Declaration of Independence again. We cut loose from Great 

 Britain in 1776 and started out to breed citizens independently of 

 her, and now let us breed cattle independently. (Applause.) 



WHY I PREFER THE ABERDEEN-ANGUS. 



(Geo. Steveson, Jr., Waterville, Kansas.) 



There may be some here who are not familiar with the origin 

 of Aberdeen-Angus cattle. They are a native Scotch breed, in- 

 digenous to the northeastern districts of Scotland. There this 

 breed originated, and there it has been brought out as one of the 

 handsomest and most valuable of the living varieties of cattle. 



From evidence obtained, the loss of horns occurred about one 



