LECTURES AND ESSAYS. 485 



ADDRESS BY PROF. SAMUEL JOHNSON, 



PRESIDENT OF THE MICHIGAN SHORTHORN BREEDERS' ASSOCIATION. 



Delivered at its Eighth Annual Meeting, in Lansing, December 20, 1888. 



Members of the Michigan - Shorthorn" Breeders' Association, and 

 Friends: 



Another year of varied experience has passed and you have met at this 

 annual gathering to compare notes; to speak, modestly of course, of your 

 triumphs in breeding, showing and perhaps in selling the red, the white and 

 the roans, the breed which represents to you more excellent and profitable 

 qualities than any other. 



Possibly some of us, probably not many of us but have met with some dis- 

 couragements in our breeding of Shorthorns during the year. Our herds 

 have not increased as rapidly as we had hoped, we have been disappointed in 

 the gender of our produce ; the red heifer calf we anticipated has proved to 

 be a spotted bull, and our color-phobia has been shocked ; we have not made 

 as many sales as we had hoped to, and our range of prices may have suffered 

 somewhat owing to the peculiar conditions of the market. You may have 

 thought your experience was exceptional, but when you hear the story of the 

 year from your brother breeders, you will see that it is very like your own, 

 and so out of this narration of an experience and incident common to all 

 who are in the business, we gather hope and courage for further effort in this 

 our chosen pursuit. 



weeding out. 



The low prices at which good, well-bred Shorthorns are selling, make the 

 present a most propitious time to weed out, from our herds, all animals that 

 are not up to our standard of breeding and individual excellence. It will 

 unquestionably be better for the herd and the business in general to send 

 them to slaughter, rather than where they will be likely to disappoint the 

 purchaser who buys them for breeding purposes. 



This weeding out and grading of the herd needs to be done very judiciously, 

 lest through the clatter of uncertain and frothy public opinion, falsely so 

 called, or the caprices of fashion, you are persuaded to discard an animal or 

 a family of proved merit that has made you money, for one that will not be 

 likely to satisfy you when you are looking for produce and profit. Perhaps 

 I am in error, but I cannot bring my judgment to acquiesce in what I believe 

 is a dangerous heresy, viz : that it is wise for me to discard a family of Short- 

 horns that is satisfactory, so far as all essential and useful qualities are con- 

 cerned, because forsooth some man with no more, perhaps less information 

 than myself on Shorthorn topics, assumes to write unfashionable across the 

 pedigree of my cattle. 



CRAZE FOR YOUNG BULLS. 



The custom of American breeders of discarding aged bulls and always 

 buying young ones, is not, in my opinion, to be commended. Aged bulls, 

 from three to six years old, that have demonstrated their value as breeders 



