LIVE STOCK BREEDERS. 85 



spised, and to-day. in this beautiful town of Springfield, wc are holding 

 our eleventh annual anniversary. AW^ are bringing ]:)oultry here to-day, 

 not simply to make a show of poultry, not simply to bring spectators, but 

 mainly for the purpose of educating the public up to the fact that poultry 

 is worthy of their notice ; that poultry is going to be one of our best com- 

 mercial products, one that every city will be proud of because it is one of 

 the best revenue producers that we have ; it has been ignored and laughed 

 at by many because it has not been thoroughly investigated, but I think 

 in comparison even with the grand live stock industry it holds a place 

 that is worthy of our consideration. I do not wish to enlarge on that, 

 however. 



And now I wish to invite all of you here to-day, and through the 

 Mayor, every person in this city to come to our magnificent poultry ex- 

 hibit and hell) us to make it what it is, a grand instructor. 



RESPONSE. 



(By Col. G. W. Waters. Canton, T^Io.) 



Now I am not engaged at present in the live stock business — not on 

 account of age — but all along, since a mere boy, I have tended the sheep 

 and swine, and have cared for the cattle, horses and mules, so I believt' 

 I am in a position to appreciate, in some degree, the value of improved 

 live stock, and if there is any one class that deserves our honor more 

 than another, it is the patient workers along the line of improvement of 

 our domestic animals. I believe I speak advisedly when I say that the 

 breeders here, all the way along the line, from poultry to the improved 

 Shorthorns and Hercfords, and I may say greater than all, fine horses, 

 these are the men we should delight to honor — because what, and because 

 v.hy? The Secretary of the Board of Agriculture, after patient research 

 and careful investigation, has announced the fact that grand old Missouri 

 in the year of 1902 has raised the phenomenal corn crop of 307,000,000 

 bushels, forty bushels to the acre, a yield per acre larger than any other 

 State in the Union, and great crops of forage and hay, and great crops 

 of oats, and a grand crop of wdieat — all of these products. But let us 

 turn to the corn crop. This corn crop of 307;ooo,ooo bushels represents 

 a commercial value, when put upon the market, of $100,000,000. It will 

 not come upon the market as grain, but in a more concentrated form. It 

 will first be manufactured not into that other article that is deleterious 

 to everyone of advanced thought, but into something that is good for 

 everybody — into beef, into pork, the dairy products, eggs, etc. These 

 are the things that these breeders are doing, have been doing — what? 



