378 A HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



illustrating the fact that a Hereford steer could 

 serve a useful purpose on the farm as a draft ani- 

 mal and then carry a great carcass of good beef 

 to the block. This, the first Hereford bullock to 

 enter the national fat stock show ring in the United 

 States, dressed 69*4 per cent net to gross. 



Miller also exhibited a three-year-old steer, an 

 own brother to the ox above mentioned, at a weight 

 of 1,705 pounds, and received first prize in the 

 Hereford class over Wm. Powell's entry. Another 

 steer of the Merryman blood, with the same sire 

 and dam, Sir Eichard 2d and Jenny Clark, was the 

 only two-year-old Hereford entry. No yearlings 

 were shown. 



"Baby Beef."-r-Portentous of an impending 

 change in type was the fact that in the Shorthorn 

 class James N. Brown's Sons, Grove Park, Sanga- 

 mon Co., 111., exhibited a white yearling steer of 

 their own breeding that weighed 1,480 pounds and 

 showed a gain per day from birth of 2.28 pounds. 

 He wort first in his class and the yearling champion- 

 ship of the hall. 



Here was a lesson in early maturity that "jarred" 

 many of the old-timers tremendously. It indicated 

 that the four-and-five-year-old plan might after all 

 not be an up-to-date method of profitably converting 

 good corn and bluegrass into prime beef. Many 

 were the caucuses held that week over this then- 

 wonderful Shorthorn steer, Duke Sangamon. In 

 the ring, outside the rail, and at the yards were 

 men who said that his marvelous weight for age. 



