HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



525 



disabled Hereford, all of which had been in 

 service on my ranch up to November 1st. The 

 Hereford received an injury about October 15th 

 which resulted in a stricture, and in consequence 

 had to be thrown, cut open and operated upon 

 by a veterinarian at three different times. Not- 

 withstanding these disadvantages and the tor- 

 tures connected therewith, he laid on flesh much 

 more rapidly than the Shorthorns, and when 

 the lot were sold in Kansas City, the Hereford 

 brought one and three-quarter cents more per 

 pound than the Shorthorns, and all were sold 

 to the same party. 



Mr. Rust will in all probability theorize 

 again, and theoretically prove to your readers 

 that these surgical operations were an advant- 

 age to the Hereford, that it relieved him of a 

 vast amount of bad blood which enabled him to 

 fatten more rapidly and evenly, and to lay on a 

 superabundance of flesh in the most valuable 

 parts, and had it not been for this favorable 

 chain of circumstances the Shorthorns might 

 have out-sold him in the market. 



W. E. CAMPBELL. 



THAT EXPERIENCE OF MR. CAMPBELL'S. 



To the "Gazette" : 



I have not, I believe, manifested any dis- 

 position to underrate the experience or ques- 

 tion the accuracy of your correspondent, Mr. 

 W. E. Campbell. And having mentioned 

 my name, in relating his experience with 

 Hereford and Shorthorn cattle, in such a 

 way as to invite my examination of his state- 

 ments, I think he should have done me the 

 courtesy to have treated \vhat I said in reply 

 with the same candor with which I treated what 

 he had said. 



The only object I have in the discussion of 

 these questions, and the only object anyone 

 should have, is to get at the facts. If there is 

 one breed of cattle superior to all others, it 

 would be interesting to ascertain which breed 

 it is; but we will never arrive at that knowl- 

 edge without a most careful scrutiny of all the 

 facts and experiences which lead up to it. If 

 there are localities where one breed is more 

 successful than other breeds, or purposes for 

 which one breed is better adapted than other 

 breeds, these facts should be shown, and they* 

 can only be arrived at by a patient and candid 

 examination of the experiences of individuals. 

 What I have said about the comparative claims 

 of the several breeds has been dictated by a 

 desire to bring out the real bottom facts, in 

 each case, and not from any desire to advance 

 personal pecuniary interests, for I have none 

 whatever in the issue, (fl 371.) 



Mr. Campbell states that he turned out a car 

 load each of Hereford and Shorthorn bulls ; the 

 Herefords grazed well during the summer, while 

 the Shorthorns did not. The next winter was 

 one of unusual severity, and about half the 

 Shorthorns died, while all the Herefords came 

 through in excellent shape. This I believe was 

 about the substance of the statement of Mr. 

 Campbell to which my attention was directed, 

 and I have no doubt every word of it is true, 

 and had it stood alone by itself I might have 

 been disposed to accept it as conclusive on the 

 point of indicating a superiority of one breed 

 over another in hardiness, but it did not stand 

 alone, and I was bound to consider it in connec- 

 tion with other facts and experiences. In the 

 first place, it appeared from Mr. Campbell's 

 own statement that he had for many years pre- 

 viously used Shorthorn bulls, and while he 

 claimed to have found the Herefords more sat- 

 isfactory, he did not state that in his long ex- 

 perience of sixteen years, he had ever before 

 experienced losses anywhere approximating the 

 case under review, so that even in his own ex- 

 perience this case seemed to be exceptional. 

 Then I knew scores and scores of men who had 

 used Shorthorn bulls with satisfaction upon the 

 plains, and without any special loss, and some 

 who preferred them to Herefords after having 

 given both a trial. And under all the circum- 

 stances I could not but regard the case detailed 

 by Mr. Campbell as exceptional and its results 

 as due to something else besides a difference in 

 the hardiness of the breeds. And I suggest 

 that perhaps it was caused by some difference 

 in the manner in which the two lots of bulls 

 had been raised and treated; that animals 

 reared mainly upon corn, are not well adapted 

 for immediate range use, as compared with ani- 

 mals raised upon grass. But it was mere theory, 

 it is true, in my supposition, that this may 

 have been the trouble here, for it may have been 

 something else, but my theory appears, for all 

 I can see, to be as good as Mr. Campbell's, for 

 he does not say he had any positive knowledge 

 on this subject, or that having it in mind he 

 made special inquiry on that point in purchas- 

 ing. He simply does not know or has not been 

 informed that there was any difference in the 

 previous handling, and on the strength of that 

 theorizes there might have been. But Mr. Camp- 

 bell, if he desires to impress his conclusions 

 upon the public as good, safe rules for other 

 men to follow in their business, will surely not 

 attempt to deny that the manner in which bulls 

 are raised is a matter of some importance, and 

 the attempt to sneer at it in mere theory will, 

 I am satisfied, prejudice his position more than 



