PROGRESS IN THE CENTRAL WEST. 343 



from Detroit to Mr. Brook's farm. Some idea 

 of the discouragement which attended early 

 ventures of this sort in the West may be 

 gleaned from the fact that one of his neigh- 

 bors remarked after the arrival of this stock: 

 "The calves are a very good lot, but the bull 

 has evidently been fed on shortcake and honey. 

 But I do not see what you wanted to bring 

 those little lambs so far for. It would take a 

 dozen of them to make a pot-pie." The critic 

 was a man by the name of Chapman, and his 

 was riot the first instance on record where one 

 who "came to scoff remained to pray." Mr. 

 Chapman was the first to buy a Short-horn 

 heifer calf from Mr. Brooks, for which he paid 

 the munificent sum of $10! It must be remem- 

 bered that this was an era of very low prices 

 and scarce money in the West, and the fact 

 that Mr. Brooks sold a calf for such a price 

 fairly established his reputation as a cattle- 

 breeder, for the simple reason that one could 

 buy a cow at that period for the price named.* 

 The first Michigan State Fair was held at De- 

 troit in 1849, and Short-horns were exhibited 

 by Messrs. Brooks and Ira Phillips. The fol- 

 lowing year the show was held at Ann Arbor, 

 and it is recorded that there were thirty-four 

 head of Short-horns on exhibition distributed 



* Paper by N. A. Clapp before the Michigan Slate Short-horn Breeders' 

 Association, 1881. 



