BEGINNINGS OF ILLINOIS CATTLE-BREEDING 165 



SANDERS importation of 1817. Other good specimens 

 brought from $400 to $600. 



By this time, thanks largely to Gapt. BROWN'S 

 persistent enthusiasm, interest in the work of live- 

 stock improvement was spreading rapidly, and in 

 1857 he helped to organize the Illinois Importing 

 Company, formed for the purpose of bringing out 

 fresh blood from the fountain-head in Great Britain. 

 Dr. H. G. JOHN of Decatur, HENRY JACOBY of Spring- 

 field and Gapt. BROWN were selected as a committee 

 to carry the purpose into effect. Of the weary 

 weeks of travel by land and sea at that date it 

 is scarcely necessary to speak. Money was freely 

 risked and time and comfort sacrificed in a supreme 

 effort to place Illinois in the front rank of this essen- 

 tial branch of husbandry. The herds of England and 

 Scotland were seen, selections made, shipment ar- 

 ranged for, and the commissioners returned. Weeks 

 elapsed with no tidings of the good ship "Georgia" 

 that carried the precious cargo, and it was only 

 when fears were bordering upon despair that she was 

 finally reported safe at anchor at Philadelphia, sixty 

 days out from Liverpool, with several valuable cattle 

 and a fine Thoroughbred mare lost at sea. The ship- 

 ment included, besides cattle, a choice selection of 

 Southdown and Gotswold sheep and Berkshire swine, 



