No. ?. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 249 



of having animals that have large proportions of these particular 

 cuts, of the high priced selling cuts, because these are the parts that 

 are wanted by the people, and it seems that everybody is willing 

 to pay for that kind. Now if we intend to breed beef cattle, it is 

 therefore important that ^^e select a type of animal that will pro- 

 duce in the greatest abundance those particular cuts of beef. I 

 am not here to plead in behalf of any particular breed of cattle. 

 There are a number of breeds anyone of which will give you success 

 along that line. I need only to name at least three of them, — the 

 Shorthorn, the Hereford and the Aberdeen-Angus. That it is pos- 

 sible to make as great a gain on perhaps some of the steers of the 

 dairy breed as it is on the steers of the beef breed, — I am not going 

 to contend that it is not. There are men who have made a good 

 profit feeding inferior cattle, buying in low condition, at a low 

 price, feeding them up to a good stage and selling them at a con- 

 siderable advance over the price they cost. That is a profitable 

 method. But that side of it does not particularly appeal to me. 

 1 am one of those who look not only to reaping a profit out of a 

 thing, a financial profit, but the i)rofit of satisfaction as well. The 

 profit of having said that you have done a thing well; that you are 

 producing the best that can be produced, if you please; profit 

 that comes from having produced a top notcher. I am not saying 

 that profits are not made from inferior steers or animals, but I do 

 contend that there is not only a financial profit but other profits 

 as well that come to the men who are breeding better steers and 

 that cater to the better markets in our great cities and to the better 

 class of people. 



Now, I am well aware that j^erhaps not many in Pennsylvania 

 have the foundation cow, from which they can grow this class of 

 cattle. There are some, — I know some splendid breeders of beef 

 cattle in Pennsylvania. You have not the number that you had 

 years ago when Washington county was prominent in this beef 

 breeding. You don't so often hear of some community in Pennsyl- 

 vania taking high rank as they did sixty years ago. When I was 

 a boy I was always taught that one of the headquarters of pure bred 

 stock of several kinds was in one of the counties in this State, 

 Washington and one or two others. Of course, you have your great 

 feeding grounds, particularly in the eastern part of the State where 

 some very fine cattle are very profitably feed. But the problem 

 will come, perhaps, in building uj) a herd of beef cattle with the 

 foundation which you have. Now T want, in as far as possible dur- 

 ing this talk, to confine myself to the simpler things along cattle 

 lines, not the complex but simple problem that will come up con- 

 stantly before you and the first proposition is getting your herd 

 established, your beef cattle herd. How shall you do that? Per 

 haps you have practically no cows of a proper beef formation. Your 

 neighborhood practically has no cows that are the proper type upon 

 which to build a beef foundation. Can you afford to sell the cows 

 which you have and go to the West and bring in cattle more of the 

 beef type and start your herd along that line. That is a question 

 which every farmer will have to answer largely for himself and under 

 his own conditions. He knows wliat he has if he knows beef cows. 



Now I am going to say this to you, — there are many of you older 

 than I, — but it has been the surprise of my life to see men that have 



