2o8 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



Britain to the United States, and those importations have been kept 

 up with more or less regularity from that time up to the present. 

 There was no great amount of pure-bred cattle imported until possibly 

 the years 1830 up to 1850. During that period, those two decades, 

 there were large and frequent importations of pure-bred cattle, and 

 of course they have had an influence in moulding the character of the 

 cattle of this country. As a result of the shorthorn breed being first 

 that was imported, their influence was stamped, their prepotency was 

 stamped upon the character of the cattle of this country, so that today, 

 if you go over the length and breadth of this land, you will find that 

 the influence of the shorthorn breed greatly predominates. This is 

 not only true of this country, but of other countries. But they were 

 not alone. While they were the pioneers, and while this grand breed 

 of cattle at an early day in this country was brought to a high state of 

 perfection, so that they have from that day to this been held up as 

 the model of what we consider a nearly perfect beef animal, still, I 

 say, they were not alone, because in succeeding times representatives 

 of other beef breeds and representatives of dairy breeds began to 

 find their way into the country ; so that at the present time we have 

 a pretty general representation in parts, at least, of the United 

 States, of all the leading beef breeds that are recognized, not 

 only in this country, but in European countries as well. We 

 have the Hereford, the Angus, Galloway, and those breeds that 

 are the ofifshoots of the Hereford and Shorthorn. And the represent- 

 ative of any breed of cattle, the representative of any breed of horses, 

 the representative of any breed of hogs or any other breed of im- 

 proved live stock, who seeks to advance the interests of his own 

 by pulling down that which is meritorious as a com{X'titor, is 

 making- a serious mistake. We all have our favorites — our reasons 

 for our favorites; and if those reasons will convince the live 

 stock breeders of the country, then we have a right to make 

 converts. If we cannot, by setting forth th; m r'.ts of the breed we 

 chami)ion, convince our fellow breeders that there is greate merit 

 in this than in some other, then we have no rig'.it to s^^ek to obliterate 

 the olher by unfair means and by false statemen'.s. 



In order to show you something of the influL'uce that the Short- 

 horn breed has upon the whole cattle industry of the country as com- 

 pared with that of other breeds, I will say that I took the pains, a short 

 time ago, to ascertain the number of registered pure-bred cattle of tin: 

 various beef breeds. I only consulted the registers of four. I ft)un(l that 

 the Galloways numbered almost 28,000; the Angus almost 85,000; the 

 Hereford almost 230,000; and the Shorthorns have registered as pure- 



