356 



HISTOEY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



upon the Shorthorn (a superior animal) pro- 

 duce an animal superior to the superior? It 

 may be some solace that at the Chicago show 

 Starlight, a grade Shorthorn, took the sweep- 

 stakes prize as best carcass in his class of three 

 and under four years old, and was also awarded 

 the grand sweepstakes prize as best carcass in 

 the show ; but even this is somewhat tamed and 

 dimmed by the fact that the vote of the judges 

 was a tie on first ballot between Starlight and a 

 black steer, Waterside Jock, and another, and 



PURE BRED STEER FRED (BY FORTUNE 2080). 



Bred by J. S. Hawes, Colony, Kan. Champion dressed 



carcass, Kansas City Fat Stock Show, 1885. 



that the umpire called in, cast his vote for Star- 

 light leaving two votes for Starlight, one for 

 the black steer and one for a Hereford. Hence, 

 whatever may be our individual opinions, the 

 fact remains that it was a plurality, and not a 

 majority vote, awarding him the grand sweep- 

 stakes. 



WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH OUR LORDLY SHORT- 

 HORNS ? 



"From all this, are we not brought face to 

 face with the question for causes? Why is it 

 that the lordly Shorthorn, having held undis- 

 puted sway and acknowledged superior, peerless, 

 is having to bow before the bald faces and black, 

 hornless Polls ? We must admit that there is a 

 fault somewhere, and that it is about time to 

 cease much of this mutual admiration business, 

 and leave off this tooting of Shorthorns with 

 immeasurable pedigrees, and look to the causes 

 of these defeats. I feel a delicacy in saying the 

 following, as it should have been proclaimed in 

 every Shorthorn meeting for the past ten years 

 by much older breeders than myself. 



"We seem to be crying aloud to make a noise, 

 to attract attention from something ; a kind of 

 'Great is Diana of the Ephesians' uproar ; and 

 while we are at this foolishness, the Hereford, 

 Angus, and Galloway men are intelligently and 



persistently pushing the claims of their pets, 

 until they are within our very entrenchments 

 and calling for unconditional surrender. Have 

 we not rested under the shadow of a great fame, 

 and relied upon the ancestry of our breed to 

 carry us through everything, long enough? 

 Have not Shorthorn breeders carried on a sense- 

 less war upon strains of blood, out-crosses, line- 

 breeding, belittling all others except their own, 

 and bred many herds into degeneracy? Have 

 they not sold for bulls to perpetuate faults, ani- 

 mals that would not make good steers? Have 

 they not bought and sold with too much regard 

 for line pedigrees, and not enough care for the 

 pedigree upon the animal's back? 



JEALOUSY VS. ENTERPRISE. 



"Is it not time we were breeding with less 

 care for the strain and more for the merits of 

 the animals? Are there not too many jeal- 

 ousies which cause a lack of unity of action? 

 Look at the energy and enterprise of our com- 

 petitors in ransacking the United Kingdom for 

 a 'world-beater,' and when he arrived too late 

 to ship by the ordinary way, sent him from the 

 seaboard to the interior a 2,400-pound steer at 

 a cost of $250, that at Kansas City the Angus 

 breed might have a representative in Black 

 Prince. See the action of the Hereford men in 

 putting the knife to an agreed number of their 

 choicest bull calves, and that they might pre- 

 pare to make common cause of the contest, con- 

 tributing funds liberally to bear the burden in 

 common. Is it any wonder that such animals 

 as these should meet and vanquish so large a 

 number of Shorthorns, castrated because their 

 owners could not sell them for bulls, bred with- 

 out intelligence, and by accident developed into 

 fair animals? How does such a line of policy 

 compare with the agreement and its document 

 which, I am told, was made with a prominent 

 firm of Shorthorn breeders and feeders, viz. : 

 To furnish them a specified number of Short- 

 horns to be reared and prepared for the show 

 ring and block, and then attempting, after ad- 

 mitting the parties to be superior feeders, to 

 dictate how their respective animals should be 

 treated, until said feeders refused, in disgust, 

 to take the animals at all? 



"WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?" 

 "I am informed that the National Associa- 

 tion of Holstein Breeders have agreed to furnish 

 and prepare a specified number of choice ani- 

 mals (thoroughbreds) for competition, both in 

 the rings and on the block, at the fat stock 

 shows, and the claim of the breed as an especial 

 beef animal is new. Similar action was also 

 taken by the Hereford Association. 



