224 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



But I may say it is not so inucli ;i question between the relative merits of 

 Siiort Horns and Merefords among the majority of farmers of this county, and 

 I believe, of tliis State, as it is between raising native ''scallawags,'' or 

 improved cattle of some breed. 



1 have bought about 100 licad of one and two years old steers this fall and 

 winter. Seventy-five are already delivered on tlie farm, and the balance will 

 be this week. 



As compared with tiie grade llercfords we have of the same age, they arc 

 very inferior. About one-third of those delivered are yearlings, and cost on an 

 average 815 each Tiie other fifty, in which there are six or eight tliree years 

 old steers, the balance being two years old, average about 820 each. The com- 

 mission to tliosc who picked them up (Messrs. Packard and Davie, of Flushing), 

 comes out of the farmers. I paid them 2^ cts. per ib., live weight, shrunk and 

 weighed at the farm. If you have examined the quotations of the Detroit 

 market, you have seen that the great bulk of the two-year old steers sold there 

 for beef, do not average more than 850 to 900 lbs. live weiglit, and have sold 

 at from 2 to 2| and 2^ cts. per lb, 



AV"e have grade Herefords of this age, for which I have refused $35 a head, 

 for beef. Tliey have had no extra care, and no extra feed since calved. I 

 think were I to oifer tliem to-day, to the butchers, at 840 a head, I could 

 get it. 



I bought of Mr. Daily (cattle drover), of Detroit, a few years ago, a lot of 

 two-year old steers he had picked up among the farmers of Gaines, Clayton, 

 and Flushing, and driven to our farm at 82o a liead, and sold him fifteen or 

 twenty of our Hereford grades of same age, at the same time, at 855 each. 

 Tliey had never been stabled or fed anything extra from calves. 



I refused, this fall, from a Hereford breeder of cattle, 850 apiece for thir- 

 teen heifer grades that will not be two years old until next spring, and 

 have been offered 875 for some of our two-year old grades. These were wanted 

 for breeding, and not for beef. And of sales of pure bloods, I made to one 

 man from Colorado a sale of three yearling heifers and a bull calf, for 8t300, 

 and to another from same State, a two-year-old heifer and two calves six weeks 

 ohl, for 8325. 



i mention these facts to show farmers what we are doing, and what they can 

 do if they will only turn their attention to the improvement of their stock. 



H* you find you can do it as well or better witli Shorthorns than Avith Here- 

 fords, 1 will not quarrel with you, but say go aliead, there is room for all. 



My object is to awaken an interest among farmers generally, in the improve- 

 ment of their stock, and to point out the advantages that will accrue to them 

 by breeding from pure-blooded sires, of some improved breed, instead of from 

 mongrels, as is now very generally the case. 



H you live near a cheese factory, and are interested in the profits of it, use 

 the Ayrshires, as their milk excels all others in tlie production of cheese. If 

 you live near a city, and sell your milk, caring little for the quality, so long as 

 you have plenty of it, the Ayrshires are your best breed. 



But if you are not specially interested in these, and have only the general 

 products of your farm, stock included, for your profits, try the Herefords. 

 They will please you, and give greater return for the investment, than any 

 other breed with wiiich I am ac(|u;iinted. 



