336 A HISTORY OF SHORT-HORN CATTLE. 



were marketed at an average weight of 1,965 

 Ibs. a fact which did much to attract the at- 

 tention of Illinois farmers to the value of the 

 blood. About this same time Mr. B. F. Harris 

 of Champaign County collected a lot of 100 

 grade steers that were fed to the enormous av- 

 erage weight of 2,377 Ibs. While such weights 

 are not wanted at the present time, this feed- 

 ing experiment served as a great advertisement 

 for Short-horn blood. About 1854 Mr. John 

 Huston, father of the late Rigdon Huston, in- 

 troduced Short-horns into McDonough County, 

 and the Hon. John Wentworth of Chicago 

 also entered the list of breeders. The Went- 

 worth Herd was one of the oldest in the 

 Northwest. Its owner was a man of gigantic 

 stature familiarly known as " Long John "- 

 who was prominent in the politics of the State 

 of Illinois and amassed a large fortune in Chi- 

 cago. He drew most of his foundation stock 

 from the East, but bought also from his early 

 Illinois contemporaries. His farm was located 

 at Summit, Cook County. Mr. Wentworth 

 maintained the herd continuously until his 

 death, which occurred some fifteen years since, 

 and a peculiar feature of his management was 

 the fact that he was in the habit of putting a 

 uniform price of $100 per head upon his crop of 

 bulls irrespective of breeding or quality. With 

 his customers it was "first come first served." 



