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carcass has thus been created and also the methods most efficient 

 in bringing- about a reaUzation of these standards. 



To obtain the best results the breeder should have before him 

 certain standards and work continually toward their attainment. 

 They may be of two kinds: first, a standard of uniformity to 

 type in the particular breed with which he is working, and sec- 

 ond, a standard of excellence in the dressed carcass. In the 

 first case, he has the standards evolved by the various breed 

 associations ; in the second case, he has to form a standard based 

 upon the slaughter house records. 



In the past the breeders here have known little or nothing of 

 the records of their cattle at the abattoir beyond the fact that 

 the fatter they were the heavier they weighed and consequently 

 the more money they received. The condition and appearance 

 of the carcass, the distribution of fat and lean and the percent- 

 age of valuable cuts has never entered into their system of breed- 

 ing. No improvements in this direction could be made because 

 no data on these points was available. Nothing was known 

 about it and consequently no standard of excellence could be 

 formed. 



That this aspect of breeding has been overlooked and has 

 been considered of little importance by the breeder can be at- 

 tributed almost entirely to the system of marketing here. Be 

 the steer young or old, lean or fat, well balanced or otherwise, 

 with a high percentage of offal or low percentage, high percent- 

 age of valuable cuts or low percentage, prime quality or low 

 quality, the price is practically the same. Dairy cows have been 

 sold at a price equal to and higher than prime steers. Such 

 a condition is ridiculous. The breeder has had no incentive to 

 raise a higher quality of meat. He receives no adequate reward 

 for his labors in producing an early maturing carcass of prime 

 quality carrying the highest percentage of valuable cuts. And 

 yet these are points of the greatest importance in the production 

 of beef, mutton and pork. 



These conditions will gradually be corrected as more interest 

 is taken in the animal, from the time it is slaughtered to the 

 time it is placed before the consumer and nothing is more calcu- 

 lated to stimulate this interest than lively competition in dressed 

 carcass contests such as were inaugurated at the last Territorial 

 Fair. It puts before the eye of the breeder in concrete form the 

 results of his efforts at improvement; it enables him to form a 

 standard of excellence in the carcass itself and shows him where 

 improvement is necessary and desirable. If he is grain finishing 

 his stock it gives him a certain basis of calculation as to whether 

 he is feeding at a profit or at a loss. 



The great development already registered in the live stock 

 industry of this Territory has yielded millions of pounds of meat 

 and put hundreds of thousands of dollars into the pockets of 



