266 AT THE SIGN OF THE STOCK YARD INN 



at $2,500; the former probably one of the greatest 

 sires of draft colts that ever crossed the Atlantic. 

 He had no imported mares, but he revolutionized 

 the farm horse stock of that part of Iowa in the 

 early seventies, and was the direct cause of the 

 subsequent embarkation into the draft-horse breed- 

 ing and importing trade on a liberal scale by the 

 Messrs. SINGMASTER. 



Meantime, JAMES H. SANDERS had noted the vast 

 extension of good breeding that began sweeping 

 over the Mississippi Valley states during the years 

 following the close of the Civil War, and looked 

 about for some means of keeping himself informed 

 as to what was going on in that important branch 

 of western agricultural development. At the State 

 Fair he saw a few Shorthorns and certain other 

 types of well-bred cattle, horses, sheep and swine. 

 Still all this was merely incidental. He had been 

 successful in business, and the major part of his 

 time was still employed in buying right-of-way 

 and materials for a railway to connect Cedar Rapids 

 and Ottumwa. He had an interest in the local 

 printing office, and as a result of his reading of 

 DARWIN'S, HUXLEY'S, TYNDALL'S, SPENCER'S and other 

 scientific works determined to found and edit with his 

 own hand a periodical to be devoted to the interest 



