58 EARLY AMERICAN IMPORTERS. 



and James I. Davidson, of Ontario, were among the earliest 

 importers of the deep-bodied, low-set, thick-fleshed Scotch 

 sort; they advertised them judiciously, and it was not long 

 ere they attracted the attention of the hard-headed farmers 

 of the central west. It was soon seen that these deep-fleshed, 

 early maturing cattle were exactly what the feeders and 

 breeders of the west needed. The strong demand which then 

 set in has continued to the present time, and was accelerated 

 in the early eighties by the appearance of the Aberdeen- 

 Angus and Herefords. These low-set, deep-fleshed breeds 

 pressed hard on the Shorthorns of that time; the Bates 

 bred stock had been bred too much for fancy points, and did 

 not possess the requisite feeding capacity nor depth of flesh 

 to successfully withstand the onslaught of the invaders in 

 the fat stock shows. The Scotch cattle and their grades 

 successfully met the new comers in the shows and in the 

 feed-lots, and carried the colors of the red, white and roan 

 through the most trying period in the history of the breed 

 in America. 



It is impossible to enumerate in this brief space any save 

 the leaders in the introduction of the Shorthorn cattle into 

 America. They were imported for business reasons, have 

 been bred for the same end, and while the craze for fashion- 

 able breeding has at times carried the Shorthorn ship peril- 

 ously near the breakers, for the most part individual excel- 

 lence (fitness for beef and milk purposes) has guided breed- 

 ers in their work. The men who have done most in import- 

 ing the best animals to improve American herds, have been 

 men of generous purposes, public-spirited, caring more for 

 the ultimate good to fellow-breeders than for immediate finan- 

 cial gain. The earliest importations were unpedigreed, later 

 importations were of practically all the leading strains, in- 

 cluding Booth and Bates, and last came the Scotch bred 

 cattle, which have, in a large part, been imported through 

 Canada. Since the earliest importations, thousands of Great 

 Britain's best have been brought to America's shores, and 

 the high degree of prosperity which rests on agricultural 

 interests is due in no small degree to the introduction of the 

 red, white, and roan. 



