350 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



trickle tlie side of your mouth. You can almost taste him. That is 

 quality. It is going to do something; it is going to make something; 

 and that is the kind you want. 



And then you want a gentle steer. I have no use for a wild steer, 

 and still less for a wild man to feed him. You w^ant him quiet and 

 gentle, and well acquainted with you, so that you can go up to him 

 at any time and put your hand on him. I am not talking about 

 ranch cattle, but about cattle in Pennsylvania. I want that steer to 

 be gentle, so that you can go up to him, and he knows that you are 

 his friend, and he recognizes you, and knows that you w'ill do good 

 things for him if he gives you the chance, and will do good things 

 for you. 



Now, I have described some of the things I want. I have a pic- 

 ture here that is perhaps not one of the best. I have never been 

 able to get an artist to make one that I consider quite right. Anoth- 

 er thing: I have never been able to produce a steer that is quite right. 

 A man who can produce something that comes up to his ideals is 

 apt to have rather low ideals, and will never see very much to im- 

 prove. I want his ideal to be so high that he cannot reach it. In 

 the second cut you will notice that we have this steer cut up as we 

 would have him cut up in the eastern market. Y^ou Avill notice the 

 one thing to which I want to call your attention, and that 

 is, that the valuable meat on that steer is with one ex- 

 ception, along the centre line, and is between the word ''chuck" 

 and the word "rump" practically. In other words, two- thirds 

 of the value of that steer lies in one-fourth of his carcass. 

 Now, I said to you that it was necessary to have a good back, and it 

 is necessary, because, as you see here, two-thirds of his entire value 

 lies along his back, extending slightly down to the sides. • Now, 

 then, those of you who are acquainted with the dairy cow, will under- 

 stand why the dairy back — the wedge shaped back — means that you 

 do not have the back on which to build a beef steer. I am not here 

 to say that you cannot take the dairy breeds of cattle, and make as 

 many pounds of meat from them. I am not here to say that, but I 

 do say that you cannot make as good a showing for the amount of 

 feed they have received — perhaps good feeders can do it, but I am 

 here to say that when you get these x>ounds, you have not got them 

 in the right ulace. You have not got them in the one quarter of the 

 back lines ihat will produce the best value in the beef steer. And 

 when vou have the necessarv fat on the dairy animals, vou have not 

 got it in the form that you want it. You have the fat outside, and 

 the lean inside, whereas you want it marbled, a streak of fat and a 

 streak of lean, and this you cannot get in the dairy animal. At 

 least, I have never seen it, and I have seen a good mny of them come 

 up. You cannot get it marbled; you get the fat on the outside, with 

 Ihe pure lean meat between. That is the reason the beef man will 

 not buy the dairy cow. He will have to sell that meat at a lower 

 price if he handles it at all. 



Now, that we know the right kind of a steer, and thekindof asteer 

 we want, how are we going to get it? A great many of you will 

 want to grow him from calf-hood, from start to finish, and if so, you 

 will want to begin much farther back than that. You will notice 

 that in the human family, certain families of men are inclined to 

 be fleshy. They don't eat any more than the lean fellows do — 



