210 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



grades have gone out and inoculated (if I may use the term) the com- 

 mon cattle of the country with good blood to such an extent that many 

 of the smaller breeds have taken on the good blood of this grand breed 

 and produced a successful show animal, and then it is brought forth as 

 the champion of that particular breed. 



Now, then, I am not trying to rob them of the honor they claim ; 

 but I am calling attention to the fact that back of that other blood, and 

 builded upon by that other blood, there was the Shorthorn foundation, 

 and that was a splendid foundation to build upon. We claim that the 

 Shorthorn breed, taking it all in all, is not only the equal but is the 

 superior of the others. It is the equal, it is the superior, as we claim, 

 from the standpoint of a beef animal ; and that phase of the question 

 was, I think, most admirably set forth this morning in an interesting 

 paper you heard from Mr. E. B. Mitchell. He showed you what was 

 necessary in order to develop the ideal beef animal ; and he impressed 

 upon you that he did not intend by that argument to detract one iota 

 from the claims of the Shorthorn cow as a milk-producing animal ; and, 

 in fact, since the discussion that followed that paper this morning, Mr. 

 Mitchell has told me that he thought one of the highest compliments to 

 the shorthorn cow was paid by the fact that representatives of other 

 breeds, who were also trying to produce this ideal beef animal, were 

 using as a nurse cow the old Shorthorn. We claim a dual purpose an- 

 imal, and I wish to emphasize the position taken by Mr. Mitchell, that 

 if you wish to produce the ideal beef animal, if you wish to bring out 

 a herd that will win the honors in the great contests, it is absolutely 

 necessary that you raise the calf of that cow upon the milk of another. 

 Now, I am not defending this as the best system. As a matter of 

 choice, I would like to see the breeding cattle of the country shown 

 with the calves at side and the cows in milk; and if they all did that, 

 then it would be possible for the man to win who gives the best care to 

 the cattle on hand, providing he had the best to start with ; but the man 

 who would attempt to feed a herd of breeding cattle today and main- 

 tain the cows in milk, will find when he has come to the show that 

 some other fellow will carry off the ribbons. So that, as a matter of 

 fact, it has resolved itself into a contest of specialties. The man who 

 will develop to the very highest degree possible the beef-producing type 

 of cattle is likely to win the ribbons in case he has chosen wisely at 

 the start. The dairymen, of course, are doing the same thing in the 

 dairy contests. But I say this, it is possible for Shorthorns to maintain 

 a high standard of excellence as beef animals and also make a creditable 

 showing as milk producers. 



Last night our friend, Wing, either consciously or unconsciously, 



