518 



HISTORY OF H E R K FORD CATTLE 



into their grazing herds, failed to realize the 

 anticipations which they entertained. They had 

 heard and read much of the excellence of Short- 

 horn cattle, and felt they had a right to realize 

 something of it in their own herds. But time 

 brought only disappointment. Unfortunately, 

 however, instead of placing the cause of failure 

 where it belonged, upon the Record, upon the 

 rascals who, through it, had perpetrated the 

 fraud 'upon them, they, still relying upon the 

 fidelity of the Record, the integrity of the men 

 who sold them the cattle, and the purity of the 

 animals themselves, committed the monstrous 

 error of ascribing their failure to a want of 

 merit and excellence or adaptability in the 

 great race of Shorthorn cattle. And their de- 

 sire for improvement not being satisfied, there 

 immediately sprang up a desire among them 

 for some other breed of cattle which does have 

 the power to favorably impress itself upon the 

 stocks with which it is interbred/ 



"So far as the quotation Mr. Miller assumes 

 to make from me is based upon anything I have 

 said or written, it is based upon those portions 

 of the above paragraph which are printed in 

 italics. It will be observed that aside from the 

 changing of expression, he purposely omits the 

 context and matter coming between the portions 

 which he pretends to take in such a way as to 

 give my meaning precisely the reverse. 



"I need not comment upon the unfairness of 

 this sort of misrepresentation, but I wonder 

 whether it is necessary to make the same allow- 

 ance for other things which the same gentleman 

 states. In his own testimony about the value 

 and merits of Hereford cattle, does he repre- 

 sent the real bottom facts, as accurately as he 

 does what I have written? He publishes from 

 time to time testimonials and letters from peo- 

 ple showing the excellence of Hereford cattle, 

 and I wonder if he transcribes what they have 

 written with the same candor and fairness as 

 he displays in rewriting my sentences. 



"Is it necessary to resort to these tricks and 

 subterfuges, to descend to this jugglery of 

 words, in order to make and sustain a reputa- 

 tion for Hereford cattle? I hope not. I be- 

 lieve the cattle to be better than one would infer 

 from the tricks and tactics to which Mr. Miller 

 finds it necessary to resort in their behalf. 

 They ought to be good enough to make their 

 way in public, holding up their heads with all 

 other breeds, and standing solely upon their 

 merits, with all the facts known, and every- 

 body's experience and opinion fairly stated and 

 considered. They ought to be good enough for 

 this, but Mr. Miller seems to think thev need 



some additional support, of a kind which he is 

 specially qualified to give. 



"I do not suppose my opinion upon the com- 

 parative merits of Hereford and Shorthorn cat- 

 tle is worth anything to anybody, even if I 

 have given the matter some attention, and for 

 that very reason the misrepresentations of Mr. 

 Miller are the more exasperating. 



"GEO. W. RUST." 



OUR REPLY. 



We did not give the article in full from 

 which we quoted in January, 1882, because of 

 its length, and not because we were not willing 

 to put all that Mr. Rust had said before our 

 readers. We submit that the article as a whole 

 is more damaging to the Shorthorns than the 

 quotations that we made, and that we did Mr. 

 Rust full and ample justice in the quotation 

 by saying, "But it is due Mr. Rust to say that 

 he ascribes this failure to the old Herd Books 

 and not to the Shorthorn race of cattle. But 

 the fact remains, and the farmer or bullock 

 breeder does not care whether this inability of 

 the Shorthorn race of cattle to improve the 

 common and native cattle of the country comes 

 from an original defect in the breed or the ad- 

 mitting of bogus Shorthorns to record, and, 

 therefore, giving them a diploma to go forth to 

 deceive the purchaser, or whether it comes from 

 speculative malpractice in breeding. The cause 

 is immaterial the fact remains the same." 



We have always .had great respect for Mr. 

 Rust's abilities, fearlessness and integrity, and 

 we may have occasion to still further quote 

 from what he may say or what he has said in 

 times past. Now, if it is true that it is diffi- 

 cult to tell where the bogus Shorthorns are, 

 and where the true ones are, it is immaterial 

 how this difficulty originated. That it exists, 

 Mr. Rust himself admits, and he is still writing 

 in the current numbers of the "Gazette" on the 

 inaccuracies, errors and frauds of the existing 

 Herd Book, and in the article from which we 

 quoted he was urging that the Herd Book 

 should be in the hands and under the control 

 of breeders for the purpose of purifying it of 

 existing errors. Since that time the Short- 

 horn Society has bought the existing Herd 

 Books with all these widely advertised frauds 

 and errors and adopted them without revision 

 as the standard, and if a new beginner, or an 

 old beginner, wishes to select an animal he 

 must go to that record, and it is folly for Mr. 

 Rust or anyone else to undertake to claim 

 merit and value in the Shorthorn breed and 



