352 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



my mind is that you may have as fine a herd of cattle as there is in the State, yet 

 you have neighbors around you who don't know the merits of your cattle, they 

 can not buy or breed them. The mass of the Indiana farmers should engage at 

 sometime, not far distant, in improving their stock. The truth is, Mr. Chairman, 

 that in Indiana, a general purpose country, we should plow less and grass more, 

 take care of our stock and better save our manure. And I think we should have 

 a Shorthorn department in our agricultural paper, and in that we should try to 

 convince the farmers that it is right to breed uij. We have stock journals which 

 are valuable ; but they don't go into every family, while the agricultural paper 

 does. If that paper could contain two columns devoted to live stock it would be 

 of much interest. Such a move need not be against the interests of the Live Stock 

 Journals. I wish to make another suggestion: that the members of this associa- 

 tion make arrangements that each county paper have a live stock department. 

 We have such a department in our county paper, which proves to be valuable and 

 interesting. I think the Indiana Farmer would be a proper paper in which to 

 have tlijs department. This would be the most effective way in which to reach the 

 majority of the farmers of the State, and it Avould not be long until we find every 

 body that is interested in his stock trying to improve them. 



Mr. Mifckell. I used to think I was a good judge of cattle, but by attending the 

 fat-stock show at Chicago I learned more there in a day than in a year attending 

 fairs. Take two of the best steers you can get, put them on grass, feed them in 

 earnest, and you will get the farmers attention and show them the result. You 

 don't want to tell them of one you have got at home, but take them right before 

 their eyes, and they will want to know how it is done. The mere fact of getting a 

 live stock journal is not enough on your part, but that paper must be a good one, 

 one that will educate the man in his business. 



Mr. Thompson. As to reading agricultural papers and live stock journals, 

 what first induced me to go into the business was reading the Live Stock Journal. 

 The best way to get this before the people is to get them interested in live stock- 

 After I became a reader of that journal and the Breeders' Gazette I took more 

 interest in the Shorthorn business. I hope something may be effected in this way. 



W. D. Cooper. We do much by breeding and showing our stock. If we take 

 a few steers and show them it has more influence in improving stock than any 

 thing we can do. Whenever I go to the fair I find more attention is given to stock 

 than anything else. We should try to push our stock out as much as possible. 

 Parties often come ten miles to my house to see my cattle. As to reading agri- 

 cultural and live stock journals, some people won't read anything Igit a political 

 paper, and we should do everything we can to get them interested in live stock 

 literature. 



Judfje Mariindide. I am not in full membership as a Shorthorn breeder, but I 

 will nevertheless give the reasons why I am a live stock man. It is because I 

 notice cattle raising is a safe and profitable business. Men place money in banks 

 — the banks break and they lose their accumulations ; they put it in manufactures, 

 and a panic causes a reverse. There is no panic in the cattle business. A panic 

 does not stop the growth of the blue grass, nor quell the ardor of the bull. It is 

 an interest that is not affected. There have been over productions in wheat and 



