854 A HISTORY OF SHORT-HORN CATTLE. 



America. Not only has the fickle jade de- 

 manded the degradation of whole families of 

 good, well-bred cattle on insufficient charges 

 affecting their pedigrees, but in the Western 

 States went so far as to dictate that red bulls 

 only should be used as sires. This latter prop- 

 osition really had its origin on the Western 

 range. Solid-colored bulls were preferred by 

 the ranchmen, and those who were breeding 

 for that trade naturally catered to the wants 

 of their customers. This, in turn, affected the 

 choice of sires in herds that supplied stock 

 bulls to those who had a general farm and 

 range clientage. In vain did leading breeders 

 point out that this was a grave mistake, nar- 

 rowing still further a field of selection which 

 had already been curtailed by the operation of 

 fashion's laws in the matter of pedigree. In 

 vain was it pointed out that in Great Britain, the 

 home of the breed, the roan was the prevailing 

 popular color and that even white bulls were oc- 

 casionally used in the most famous herds. The 

 buyers of bulls for steer-getting purposes were 

 inexorable. A solid red, and worst of all (in 

 many cases) very dark red bulls, of the most 

 ordinary character, were freely bought in pref- 

 erence to thicker, better, mellower roans, yel- 

 low-reds or reds with white markings. So gen- 

 eral was this demand at one time that it seemed 

 fairly suicidal for the owners of pedigreed herds 



