402 ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



up; he must make his home more pleasant, because he must entertain 

 strangers over night. Then his neighbors begin to think that Smith 

 is getting to be of some importance, and they begin to help him a 

 little. If there is one thing that I am proud of in that little com- 

 munity that I have been telling you of, it is that there is no little 

 petty rivalry or jealousy there. Everybody feels that they have got 

 to help the other fellow, and if a man comes there with a hundited 

 dollars, he won't get away until he has spent that money. If the cat- 

 tle breeder can't sell him cattle, he may turn him over to the sheep 

 man, and if he can't be interested in sheep, he will probably be in- 

 duced to buy chickens before he gets home. For this reason I feel 

 that the man who would engage in the pure blood livestock business 

 should be a man of high culture, and business ability. He must not 

 only work for his own interest, although that alwaj's comes first 

 with us all, but he must help the community in which he lives. If 

 he cannot sell a man, he should at least endeavor to keep the money 

 in the community; you, know what a stimulus it is to a community 

 to feel that every man in it is trying to build it up in character and 

 finance. You fathers know what it means to your sons to live in a 

 community where every man is doing something for himself first, 

 and for the community at large as well. That is the kind of man 

 we want to grow in this country. We want to improve the live- 

 stock of the community and at the same time we want to improve 

 the comnmnity. I know of nothing that improves a community more 

 than high-class livestock, because it means a high-class man behind 

 that livestock. 



Now, I propose to say a few words in regard to that starting out 

 in this business. One of the first things you want to know is how 

 to attract buyers. I think I have indicated a little as I went along 

 some of the ways in which you can attract buyers. The very first 

 thing is, that you must have your stock in such condition that it will 

 attract buyers. You must know that there is nothing more disap- 

 pointing than to travel three, four, or five hundred miles to see a 

 man's stock, and then find that stock is not what was promised you 

 it would be. Instead of being attracted, the buyer is driven away. 

 He has lost his trust in you because you have misled him in that 

 way. There comes the importance of being a good judge of good 

 livestock. You can describe your stock in every possible way as 

 first-class stock, but when the buyer comes there he will soon see 

 you have misled him, if it is j^t what you represented it to be. 

 There is nothing like seeing, to convince a man, and these buyers 

 are, nearly all of them, good judges. And after you have once mis- 

 led a man he will never trust you again. It is far better to make 

 the animal a little worse than it is, rather than better than it is. 

 Therefore your first motive should be that your animal should be 

 of the stamp you represent it to be. You will get many cases of 

 mail orders, because the mto have not time to come. This is a mis- 

 take, in my judgment. No man should buy blooded stock as he 

 would buy a pig in a poke; he should see the stock, and become 

 familiar with the type of the stock, and with its character. Many 

 men make the mistake of thinking that simply because an animal is 

 pure bred he is all right. It is a very common thing for me to get 

 letters something like this: "Please quote me price on calves 

 three or four months old, or on bulls three or four months old. 



