374 A HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



It was to such men as these that the Fat Stock 

 Show made its first and most successful appeal. Mr. 

 Gillett responded to the earliest call for exhibits 

 with several loads, the pick of his beef crop of 1878, 

 and was pleased beyond measure at adding to his 

 laurels as the first cattleman of America by winning 

 the grand championship for best single steer in the 

 show and the same prize for best carload of any age 

 or breed. 



Some Wonderful Weights. As coming events 

 are said to cast their shadows before, it was looked 

 upon as a significant fact upon this occasion that the 

 steer with which Mr. Gillett won this primal Ameri- 

 can championship was not yet four years old and 

 weighed but 2,185 pounds ! That would seem to be 

 a right good weight for a ripe steer now, but listen 

 to this account of the sensational class of that old- 

 time show reproduced from the report of the exhi- 

 bition printed in the January, 1879, issue of the 

 "National Live-Stock Journal": 



"This was probably the most remarkable group 

 of steers ever seen together in America. There 

 were twelve steers in the class, ranging in weight 

 from 1,980 to 3,155 pounds, and averaging 2,491; 

 and, leaving out the smallest two of the lot, the aver- 

 age of the remaining ten was 2,594 pounds. They 

 were all high-grade Shorthorns excepting one, the 

 smallest steer of the lot, a grade Hereford weighing 

 1,980 pounds, but although the smallest steer in the 

 ring, he was not the poorest butcher beast by long 

 odds. The largest ox, weighing 3,155 pounds, was 

 shown by Charles Miller, Williamsville, 111. He 

 was five years old in June last, and attracted uni- 



