LIVE STOCK breeders' ASSOC lATlON. 20^ 



work, that the whole agricultural world today recognizes the agency 

 of these agricultural schools and the value of these scientific agri- 

 culturists. I say we owe to them a debt of gratitude and the country 

 generally owes them a debt that it cannot very easily repay. It affords 

 me very great pleasure to give this testimony to men who are doing 

 the work such as is accomplished by Professor Waters and his assist- 

 ants, and by the general class of men who are doing similar work in 

 other agricultural colleges of our land. 



I want to discuss in a general way the live stock industry of the 

 country. I think you will admit that diversified farming is an absolute 

 necessity. We all have recognized that. We were taught that before 

 these agricultural colleges were established. Thoughtful agriculturists 

 long since came to the conclusion that diversified farming was necessary,, 

 and yet unfortunately there is a large number of farmers today who' 

 have not learned that valuable lesson. I shall not enter into any ar- 

 gument to prove this to you ; neither do I think it necessary to take 

 your time to prove that live stock husbandry is absolutely necessary 

 to any well organized and successful system of agriculture. That being- 

 admitted, the question naturally comes back to us, "what kind of live 

 stock then will you have?" Why certainly the best kind — certainly im- 

 proved live stock, because as your lands advance in value, as they 

 rise from what formerly was considered a fair price of ten dollars per 

 acre, up to fifty, sixty, seventy-five and in some localities of Missouri 

 even above the one hundred dollar mark, it becomes absolutely nec- 

 essary for the possessor of that land to determine the question of main- 

 taining upon it a better class of live stock. You cannot successfully, 

 you cannot economically, you cannot (and keep out of the poor house) 

 maintain upon these valuable acres, these rich and broad acres of 

 Missouri, a class of live stock that brings you a mean, low price upon 

 the markets of the country. Then, I think you will agree with me 

 that it is necessary to have improved live stock. Now then, the question 

 of zi'Jiat kind of live stock, of course, depends upon the tastes of the 

 man himself, depends, perhaps, somewhat more upon locality, upon 

 his surroundings. But have improved live stock ; if possible, have pure- 

 bred live stock. If that is out of the range of your possibilities, then 

 have a class of live stock that is just as near pure bred as is possible 

 for you to possess. This was recognized at an early day in the history 

 of our country. Records show that the importation of improved live 

 stock began at an early date in our country's history. We have a 

 record of the importation of shorthorn cattle as early as the latter 

 part of the i8th century, about the year 1794. There is a 

 record of pure-bred shorthorn cattle being imported from Great 



