238 



HISTOEY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



ties say I cannot afford to keep my cattle off 

 their show grounds. Perhaps not. The future 

 will determine this. There is one thing about 

 this: these societies cannot afford to run them 

 in the interest of the Shorthorn breed of cattle. 

 The people are inquiring for the best breed and 

 they are looking for the proper tests of merit as 

 between the different breeds, and they would 

 look to the State and district societies for a 

 solution of this question. They have done so 

 in the past, supposing that societies taking the 

 names of our great commonwealths to designate 

 their special organization, conducted by men 

 selected from the different congressional dis- 

 tricts, and holding office under official seal, in 

 the name of the people, for the purpose of se- 

 lecting the best kind, and the best of the best 

 kind: I say, it has been supposed that men 

 acting thus under the great seals of the dif- 

 ferent States, and ostensibly for the public 



THOS. ASTON, ELYRIA, O. 



benefit, were doing what they professed, and not 

 for their individual benefit ; and when they, the 

 people, shall recognize that all this machinery 

 has been used to advance the Shorthorn inter- 

 est, there will be as much use for them as there 

 is for the old ruined castles and monasteries of 

 the Old World. 



"I have shown under these managements, un- 

 der this order. I have known when on these 

 grounds that there was as much chance of win- 

 ning against Shorthorns as there was to be 



struck by lightning; still, I have gone on, hop- 

 ing there might be a time in the future when 

 this partialism should pass away. But this hope 

 has never passed. When these men could no 

 longer carry their ends, they say they will not 

 permit competition as between breeds. Having 

 decided on this, there is no further object in 

 visiting these show grounds. 



"This work of Shorthorn breeders was fairly 

 illustrated at Ottawa (Illinois State Fair) when 

 Mr. was superintendent of the cattle de- 

 partment. I was making a very good show, 

 and I asked of the president and ex-president 

 and several of the vice-presidents that they 

 would see that fair and impartial men were se- 

 lected as judges to pass on the herd and sweep- 

 stakes premiums. I claimed I had a right to 



this. It was admitted, and Mr. admitted 



the right, and after great protestations of try- 

 ing, said to me he thought he had a good com- 

 mittee, and the last men selected had been se- 

 lected after a very careful and laborious search, 

 a search that had been so burdensome that he 

 was obliged to get the aid of that other impar- 

 tial and disinterested vice-president and offi- 

 cial, Col. , and the combined efforts of 



these officials one the cattle superinten- 

 dent, the other the marshal of the ring, and, 

 after a laborious and painstaking search of the 

 State they found Mr. Spears, another disinter- 

 ested and impartial man, to place as one of the 

 judges to pass on the merits of the Herefords 

 and Shorthorns. Mr. (the superintend- 

 ent) is and was a prominent Shorthorn breed- 

 er. Col. is and was all this and, besides, 



was the salesman that sold all the Shorthorns 

 of the great West; and the judge selected was 

 one of the leading, and perhaps at his best, the 

 leading Shorthorn breeder in Illinois. 



"These are the kind of men that have run the 

 cattle department of the great Board of Agri- 

 culture of the State of Illinois. The farmers 

 of Illinois and the West wish to know the best 

 breeds for a given purpose, and they will find 

 a way by which to determine it. I am not pre- 

 pared to say that the showing on the fair 

 grounds of Illinois has not been a benefit to 

 the Herefords. I think it has ; but there may be 

 ways and means by which the Herefords can be 

 brought before the public. We may find one of 

 these ways, and find it by bringing breeding 

 stock in breeding condition and fat stock in fat 

 condition. 



"The steer is the legitimate product of any 

 beef breed. I will endeavor to show to a rea- 

 sonable extent this product, and will take the 

 liberty of using the public shows or find some 

 other way. For the present I will not show breed- 



