SECOND PERIOD OF ACTIVITY. 263 



ous Ohio companies, it must be conceded that 

 America owes a lasting debt of gratitude to the 

 enterprising men who in these early days, actu- 

 ated largely by a pure desire to benefit the ag- 

 ricultural community, transferred at great cost 

 to themselves so many valuable Short-horns 

 from Great Britain to the West. 



R, A. Alexander of Woodburn. No name in 

 American Short-horn history is more revered 

 than that of Robert Aitcheson Alexander. 

 Manifesting a deep interest in cattle-breeding, 

 contemporaneous with Mr. Thome of New 

 York, Mr. Alexander's operations were on a 

 still more extensive scale than those at Thorn- 

 dale, already noted. Moreover they had the 

 additional advantage of being carried on in a 

 community that appreciated to the utmost the 

 extraordinary opportunities- offered by the es- 

 tablishment of such a herd. As the proprietor 

 of the princely estate of Woodburn, Wooclford 

 Co,, Ky. a short distance west of Lexington, 

 the "blue-grass" capital Mr. Alexander, with 

 characteristic Scottish thrift, had brought his 

 magnificent farm into a high state of fertility. 

 Stone walls and stone stabling gave an air of 

 solidity to the surroundings. The far-famed 

 Lothians of his native land afforded no rural 

 scenes so fair as those presented by the wood- 

 land pastures of this "old Kentucky home." 

 Naught was wanting to add grace and value to 



