THIRD ANNUAL YEAR ROOK — TART \l. 395 



John J. Steward: In reply to the question as to whether it pays to 

 go into the show business I must say, from our own experience, yes, with 

 these provisions: One must be ready for the show before going out. We 

 must have some cattle of our own breeding, as that is where winning 

 counts, increasing their value and the value of those at home. 



The new men sometimes think if they pay high prices for cattle they 

 can go right out into the show yard and make a success of it, and they 

 often get badly disappointed, but when a breeder has produced something 

 good enough to show, fits it carefully, and wins a ribbon on it, it almost 

 doubles the value of the animal, besides giving the exhibitor about as 

 good advertising as I know of, and since all the big breed associations 

 have been giving so liberally at shows and fairs, by being careful and 

 using good judgment, the exhibitor should be able to clear all expenses 

 and soon make a little profit besides. Like all other successful business 

 men, the cattle man must advertise his goods; the intending buyer (at 

 least in Missouri) has to be shown. It does not count so much, no mat- 

 ter how good the individual merit or breeding of your animals if you 

 keep them at home and talk or write about them; to get big values when 

 selling, it seems generally one must get out in the ring and show them. 

 The writer has known of several breeders who after exhibiting very suc- 

 cessfully for many seasons, for some reason have decided to quit show- 

 ing, and notwithstanding all they had done in the past, their successes 

 were soon forgotten or overlooked or outshadowed by the new men who 

 came into the field; and buyers have passed the old herds by and flocked 

 to the comparatively new men in the business, so I think if one goes into 

 the stock business to make it pay the best way to do is to exhibit your 

 work. 



Charles Gudgell: I regret very much that I have no positive convic- 

 tions myself on the question as to whether it is profitable to a breeder to 

 exhibit at the breeding stock shows. One can, of course, fancy conditions 

 of success under which it would be profitable to do so, but taking the 

 results as they usually come I am almost convinced at times that it does 

 not pay in the end. To show without success would not be profitable in 

 any event. Successful showing is now to a great extent a matter of fit- 

 ting, which in the end is ruinous to the animals in shortening their period 

 of usefulness if not entirely destroying the same. 



Dr. Wm. W. Crane: Yes, it pays to show, a number of conditions 

 being presumed. A man must have quite a good sized home herd above 

 the show herd; they should be of the same general blood lines and same 

 type. He should be right certain that he knows a show animal at home; 

 he must know when an animal is in show condition; of his own knowl 

 edge he must know how to fit for the show yard, or in lieu of that knowl- 

 edge he must have the ability and means to procure a fitter who does 

 know the things mentioned. With these points taken for granted and 

 many more that need not be recited I believe the advertising obtained 



