324 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



and artificial values for pedigree Shorthorns are numbered. This may or may 

 not turn out to be a prophetic suspicion; but in any case, there are nowadays 

 strange fluctuations in prices of the finest tribes, which seem to point in the 

 direction of permanently lower oues in the future. This again may or may 

 not turn out to have been a leading or misleading omen, yet there can be no 

 doubt that our more fashionable tribes and herds have been worked up to a 

 degree of fiscal prominence which, to say the least, has not been an unmixed 

 benefit to the bovine interests of the world. It is a sort of open secret that 

 Shorthorn interests in this country are of so sensitive and delicate a character 

 and have so many 'wheels within wheels' in the machinery which keeps them 

 running along, are bolstered up by so many artificial props, and sustained in 

 such an intricate network of fancies and devices, tl?at the defection of half a 

 dozen of the leading men would bring about a collapse in which would be 

 involved the ruin of a good many people where all and more than all is 

 invested in the matter. I am not one of those who deplore entirely this state 

 of things, though I consider the intrinsic value of the Shorthorns has been 

 left altogether too far behind, and that it has been a mistake to admit so much 

 of the speculative and gambling element into Shorthorn transactions. It was 

 perhaps inevitable that the business should become artificially inflated so soon 

 as a number of wealthy men took a fancy for it ; but at the same time we 

 must admit that it has been much more extensively developed, and been made 

 more attractive, and perhaps more generally successful than would have been 

 the case without these men. One thing we must remember, viz : That these 

 men would not themselves have taken much especial interest in it were it not 

 that a large capital was involved. Certain it is, alse, that the science of 

 animal reproduction cannot be pursued to any great length without the aid of 

 plenty of money. It is, moreover, true that as the wealth of a country 

 increases, as that of England and America is increasing, men will take in 

 hand various fancies, or 'hobbies' as some folks call them, will devote limited 

 time and almost unlimited money to them, and so run up the business that it 

 entirely loses its intrinsic value in one that is governed only by fashion and 

 the length of men's purses." 



We are led to quote these remarks from Professor Sheldon as pertinent to 

 the subject of fancy breeding, and the determination of certain breeders 

 to make some lines of fancy breeding aristocratic and fashionable at the 

 expense of more substantial and practical value, though not bred according 

 to certain breeders' fancy. What breeders of Michigan should strive for is 

 to breed those families in good repute for their good qualities as well as good 

 pedigrees to the greatest perfection possible. In order to do this it is not 

 necessary that on account of the name of an Alexander, a Cochrane, or an 

 Earl Ducie, a breeder with moderate means should impoverish himself to 

 obtain one of their fancy pedigreed bulls, which, in many instances, breed no 

 better, nor as well as bulls reared by mor| modest breeders. Shorthorn breed- 

 ing, like all other branches of business, should be conducted on a good, sub- 

 stantial basis, and the business should sustain itself and yield a profit to the 

 breeder, or else he should abandon it. The question is, how shall this be done? 

 I answer: First, get good bred animals at a moderate price, so that after a 

 cow has bred two or three calves it costs no more to raise a thoroughbred than 

 a grade. The increased value of a thoroughbred, as compared with a grade, 

 will prove remunerative even though they be raised for beef. This however, 

 is not, nor will be necessary for years or ages to come. Until the countries 

 are better suppled with good cattle than at present, there will be no glut in 



