300 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



inferior stock will damage our prospects or perhaps ruin all chances of 

 building up a trade. What is required is, first, confidence in our own 

 stock, and, secondly, the determination that when the opportunity for 

 shipment comes only the best cattle shall be permitted to go to represent 

 us in these foreign markets. 



There is still a sentiment among cattlemen in this country that we 

 must have fresh blood from Europe to maintain the standards of our 

 herds. This sentiment has been handed down by tradition from the early 

 days when we began building up our herds; when many of the cattle im- 

 ported were not as good as they should have been, and when our breeders 

 were not as spillful as they are today. It has been kept prominent by 

 the importers and dealers in imported stock, and by people who profited 

 by such transactions otherwise than by the improvement of their cattle. 

 I believe that I am right in concluding that this sentiment has no other 

 foundation than tradition and personal interest at the present day, and I 

 am going ahead upon that theory and trying to put our cattle into the 

 markets of the world. But suppose, for the sake of argument, we accept 

 the other view; would we not be asked at once by our prospective cus- 

 tomers why they should not go to the same source that we are obliged 

 to draw from? If our herds are not as good as the British herds, if they 

 have not the quality of permanency, what argument can we use to induce 

 people who want the very best to come to this country for our cattle? 

 Should an American breeder find that a reasonably good animal had been 

 produced abroad, having strains of blood corresponding with his line of 

 breeding, I should expect him to try to gain possession of that animal, 

 just as I should expect an intelligent Englishman or Scotch breeder 

 to come to this country for an animal under the same circumstances, if 

 he were not prevented by the rigid sanitary restrictions enforced by his 

 country, and as they sometimes did before such restrictions were im- 

 posed. But the idea that foreign cattle as a class are better in the show 

 ring or have greater prepotency than our cattle, is a fallacy which the 

 American breeder should set about dispelling now and for all time. 



We have within the United States the most varied soils and the 

 widest range possible of climatic conditions, within the limits favorable to 

 the high development of the domesticated animals. No doubt there are 

 some sections which are especially adapted to the highest types of certain 

 breeds. Our breeders should study this question, and they should try and 

 unite the conditions of the soil, the condition of climate, the methods of 

 feeding and treatment which are best suited to each particular breed. 

 In that manner we shall produce animals of all breeds equal to any in 

 the world — animals which are the product of their environment, and 

 which, consequently, become more and more capable of transmitting their 

 characteristics to their offspring. It is not surprising that the highest 

 types of animals bred in distinct countries, under the peculiar conditions 

 which exist there, should in certain instances after being brought to 

 this country, show some falling off in succeeding generations, as a result 

 of the violent change in their environment. But this deterioration is not 

 permanent, if they are properly managed; and when the herd recovers 



