SESSION 



Improved Live Stock Breeders' 



Association. 



January 7-8-9, 1908. 



PRESIDENT'S ANNUAL ADDRESS. 



(R. W. Brown, Oarrollton.) 



It has truly been said that "Agriculture is the basis of all 

 wealth," but as we look over the past and note how each step in 

 the progress of agriculture has become more and more dependent 

 upon live stock production, we may well say for the future that 

 live stock improvement is the basis of all wealth. Upon it must 

 be built that higher agriculture which in turn must be the founda- 

 tion of every other line of industry. This fact is now generally 

 recognized by all men, and there never was a time in the history 

 of the world when greater interest was manifested toward im- 

 proved live stock, than today by men of other callings than that of 

 farming. The tendency to invest in live stock by these men is 

 rapidly increasing. 



What do we mean by improvement? Improvement by some 

 breeders means only utility. Simply the dollars and cents side of 

 the question, and we can but admit that this is the incentive that 

 actuates improvement in all lines of industry. To prove that it 

 has a dollars and cents value, we need only to refer to the great 

 markets where the animals are sold on their merits alone. The 

 quotations on all markets will average from two to three cents 

 more per pound for well-bred cattle as compared with the scrub 

 of the same age, and with this must be coupled the fact that it re- 

 quired a smaller amount of feed to produce a pound of gain on the 

 well bred animal than it did on the common stuff. It is hard to 



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