THIRD ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VI. 405 



Aaron Barber: Does it pay to go into the show business? is a ques- 

 tion often asked by those engaged in stock breeding. In answer I can 

 but relate my own experience. A person engaged in breeding fine stock 

 as a business in order to make successful sales must first find his cus- 

 tomers and then have the class of goods they desire to purchase. Exhib- 

 iting stock at the fairs brings the breeder face to face with those 

 engaged in precisely the same calling. You form their acquaintance and 

 see and know to a certainty the class of stock they are breeding. The 

 breeder who is breeding and bringing out the best specimens of the vari- 

 ous breeds show to a class of men who are constantly alert to find and 

 purchase animals of rare merit. You have the opportunity of showing 

 them that you are breeding and that you have this class of stock. In 

 what other way of advertising can you so thoroughly attract this class 

 of customers? There is another class of customers who are In want of 

 plainer stock, not from choice but perhaps men of limited means; there- 

 fore the breeder who is breeding the plainer and cheaper animals finds 

 his customers. The breeder has to depend on his sales for profits and 

 to make sales he depends on his customers. To get customers he must 

 advertise; advertising through stock journals keeps the breeder con- 

 stantly before the people and exhibiting at the fairs demonstrates the 

 truth of his advertisement. I would say to the breeder, exhibit your 

 stock; bring them out in the best possible condition. While the money 

 value of the premiums won may not be extremely profitable the acquaint- 

 ance and advertising the breeder gets are of great value. 



Stanley R. Pierce: I think your correspondent could not do a better 

 thing for his business and for his breed of cattle than to show a few 

 pure-bred steers of his own breeding and breed at our leading fat stock 

 shows. The end of all pure-bred beef cattle is the block and in our 

 breeding business we are trying to produce and sell pure-bred bulls that 

 will sire good steers for Chicago and other markets. I think a good way 

 for a beginner to sell these bulls is to first show some steers from his 

 herd and if they can win in our best shows he will have no difficulty in 

 selling bulls of the same breeding and individual merit at good prices to 

 sire cattle for the leading markets. Besides your correspondent will 

 have no trouble in selling his steers if well fitted for nearly as much as 

 or perhaps more than they would bring if sold as bulls. 



I am greatly in favor of fat stock shows. They are of great benefit 

 to breeders of beef cattle. The small breeders can afford to castrate a 

 few bulls and show steers, but they cannot all afford to fit and show a 

 valuable herd of breeding cattle, and that is why the small breeders are 

 unable to sell their bulls. 



