134 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



$250, and the result is that it is a herd of very uniform, good-producing 

 cows, that would be hard to duplicate anywhere. It was one of the 

 best examples that I ever had of an opportunity to see of the result of the 

 result of the use of good blood and judicious selection. 



The farmer who has a small herd of cows is not altogether to blame 

 that his herd has not been improved more than it has in the past few 

 years. Far too many breeders of pure-bred cattle are not culling their 

 herds at all, and too frequently we hear the statement that a poor bull 

 is good enough for a farmer to use who has a dozen or fifteen cows. The 

 the poorer the man's bunch of cows, the better bull he should buy, for 

 it is much cheaper and much quicker to get improvement through the 

 use of a good sire than through the cow herd. 



Another reason why many of the cattle that come from the western 

 ranges today are not better and more satisfactory feeders than we find 

 them to be is due to the fact that many pure-bred breeders think that 

 any bull is good enough to go to the range. They should realize that 

 sooner or later the offspring from these inferior bulls, that never should 

 be used for breeding purposes, will come back to them as feeding cattle, 

 and they should take upon themselves a large share of the blame for these 

 inferior feeders that we so frequently see in the river markets. There 

 is no means by which the beef cattle in this country could be more 

 quickly and permanently improved than if all the breeders of pure-bred 

 cattle wiould cull their herds from twenty-five to fifty per cent. 



One of the best sheep breeders of England was once asked how 

 many rams he would have to breed before finding one good enough for 

 his own use. His reply was that he would not find more than one in 

 four hundred. 



What improvement would the breeders of pure-bred corn have made 

 if they would have saved each ear of corn they raised as seed? They 

 tell us that from an acre of corn yielding from fifty to sixty bushels 

 they are only able to get from three to five bushels of No. 1 seed. 



If there is any reason, then, for the old law that like produces like, 

 and we expect to improve our breeds of beef cattle, we should not expect 

 to keep for breeding purposes every male calf that is dropped, but rather 

 cull them, and cull them very severely. 



Even though the west was producing as many cattle as it once did, 

 and was to continue to produce the same number, it is time that the 

 farmers throughout the central states were keeping more stock for the 

 sake of keeping their lands fertile, and unless more stock is kept, per- 

 haps some of us will live to see the day when Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri 

 and Kansas are buying commercial fertilizers, as is now being done 

 by the New England states. But I do not believe the subject of commer- 

 cial fertilizers needs as serious consideration at this time as does the 

 subject of where we are to get our good feeding cattle in the next few 

 years, and we continually hear the complaint that it is harder each year to 

 find good feeding cattle than it was the year before. 



Not long ago I saw a trai'nload of cattle unloaded that were shipped 

 up from Old Mexico. Many of them were seven and eight years old, 



