corn and more mutton across the Atlantic, and 

 when we can raise nearly all our own combing 

 wool. 



Hitherto we have raised few turnips or other 

 roots for our sheep. Much has been written and 

 said in their favor and many farmers have tried 

 them, only to give them up. The English farm- 

 ers, to a great extent, feed their turnips on the 

 land as they grow. In our own severe oli male we 

 have to keep them in pits or cellars. We aret our 

 seed largely from England and sow the English 

 improved varieties. 



Twenty-nine years ago t was walking with Mr. 

 Lawes in a turnip field at Kothamstead. We 

 came to a part of the field where, up to a certain 

 row on the right hand, the turnips were much 

 better and larger than on the left hand. "What 

 is the reason?" Tasked. "Has one part of the 

 field been dressed with superphosphate or ma- 

 nured more heavily than the other part?" "No, 

 both were treated alike, but this fine crop is 

 'Ikerving's Improved Purple-top Swede,' while 

 the other is a common variety which has been 

 grown for some years in this neighborhood. And 

 I wish," said Mr. Lawes, ".you would take a sam- 

 ple from both and analyze them." I did so, and 

 we found the 'improvement' consisted princi- 

 pally of water. The English seed growers have 

 for years made great efforts to improve the va- 

 rieties of turnips and mangels. They have bred 

 for size and shape, and they have attained won- 

 derful success. But the increased s>ze is to a 

 large extent merely an increase of water. They 

 have got varieties so much improved that they 

 can grow 84 tons per acre, nearly 80 tons of whicti 

 is water. 



Now. in this country we do not wish to pull up, 

 top, draw home, pit and slice up 80 tons of water 

 to get 4 tons of food. We can pump water far 

 cheaper with a wind mill. And turnips and 

 mangels will never be generally grown in this 

 country till we begin to breed for quality rather 

 than tor size. When we can get mangel wurzel 

 that contains but little more water than fresh 

 grass or fresh clover, we shall then be able to 

 gather, store away, cut and feed out the crop at 

 one-third the expense, and the roots would keep 

 better. We should then be able to grow them 

 for winter and early spring use as a substitute 

 for grass. But as long as we are cauyrht by size 

 and sound : as long as we select varieties such as 

 'Norbiton Giant,' because it grows b'g and has a 

 big name, we shall find little profit in root cult- 

 ure. I am in great hopes, now that there is a 

 prospect of having experimental stations us fast 

 as the means and men can be obtained to estab- 

 lish them, that American seed growers will breed 

 for quality rather than for size. It is a compar- 

 atively easy matter to 'improve' a variety the 

 wrong way; it is easy to take a sugar-beet nd 

 breed it back to a mangel wurzel. The reverse 

 process may not be so easy, but it can be done. 

 Our roots seldom grow so large or so watery as 

 the same varieties do in England, arid by grow- 

 ing our own seed and selecting bilbs that will 

 give us the largest yield of real food per acre 

 with the least water, we may hope to make some 

 real improvement that will far more than pay 

 the cort of all our experimental stations for the 

 next 20 years. We shall then export mangel 

 wurzel seed to England and France instead of 

 importing it. 



And I hope and firmly believe that we shall do 

 the same thing with herds of sheep and swine. 

 There is a grand chance for intelligent, skillful, 

 scientific and honest breeders in this country. 

 But we must breed for real merit and not for 

 show. Our experimental stations mut-t test our 

 work as we proceed, showing us the riirht dir c- 

 tion, and checking us when we are going wronsr. 



We have, for years, been importing the best 

 cattle and sheep and best swine that England 

 could produce. We have been able to hold our 

 own In the case of pedigreed cattle. But we 



have not attained like success in the case of 

 English breeds of sheep and pigs. An English- 

 bred sheep or pig almost always makes a better 

 appearance in the show-yard than the home- 

 bred, even though descended directly from th 

 very choicest imposed stock. It is worth our- 

 while to ask why this is the case. Why cannot 

 we succeed as well with English sheep as with 

 English Short-horns ? 



I think we may find an answer, at least, in 

 part, in the fact that short-horns have a record- 

 ed pedigree, the sheep and swine have not. The 

 Short-horns are kept as pure in England as they 

 are here. We compete on common ground. 

 But how is it with sheep and swine? If I wish 

 to show a sheep or pijr at the Centennial I am 

 required to fumish evidence that it is "imported 

 or descended from imported animals, and that 

 the home-bi ed shall be of pure blood as far back 

 as the fifth sreneration." 



No real American breeder will object to this 

 rule. With my own sheep and swine I can com- 

 ply with the condi ions, bur in reply to a request 

 for suggestions I remarked 'hat the same rule 

 ought to be applied to English breeders and to 

 imported s'ock as to American breeders and 

 home-bred animals If not, why not ? 



I have got Cotswold sheep imported from the 

 best breeders in England, but I have never yet 

 happened to see a pedigree of English sheep or 

 of English pigs that was worth the paper on 

 which it was written. I do not say that English 

 sheep and pigs are not pure, but I do say that,, 

 as a rule, the records do not prove if. And I 

 think that far greater latitude is allowed the 

 English breeders of sheep and swine t han is al- 

 lowed to American breeders. When we get im- 

 ported anim-tils we put numbers in their ears and 

 keep the stock pure. No reputable breeder re- 

 sorts to crosses. And we can furnish longer ped- 

 igrees of Cotswold sheep. Essex. Berkshire and 

 Suffolk pigs in this country than are usually 

 furnished by English breeders. 



I saw sometime since the pedigree of an im- 

 ported Essex boar. The dam took this and that 

 pi ize- the sire was never beaten at any show, 

 and so of the grand dam, and the grand sire waa. 

 the celebrated boar something-or-other, "the- 

 progenitor of t he race." 



Trtlk of short pedigrees! Why, it has been 

 claimed, and perhaps justly, that Chester White 

 and Poland China pigs are not established breeds 

 because ten or a dozen or a score generation*; 

 back the pedigree, if they have any. runs back 

 into the American woots, and yet here is a pig, 

 bought in England at a high prioe. that two or 

 three generations carries him back to the " pro- 

 genitor of the race." 



To the American breeder the future looks 

 bright. If we keep our sheep and swine pure ; 

 if we weed out, vigorously : if we keep a<xjura<e- 

 records, and bre-.-d for definite, correct and use- 

 ful objects, it will not be many years before we 

 shall not only have a wreat demand from our 

 own widely-extended land, but from Europe, 

 Asia and Au-tralia. and that at prices which will 

 liberally compensate us for all our skill, labor 

 and patient waiting. We shall not be able to 

 make as fine a display in the show-yard, but our 

 animals will be far more valuable for the pur- 

 pose of improving common stoek than those 

 which are more promiscuously bred, and intell- 

 igent farmers and breeders will not be lung in 

 finding It out. 



We all feel that America is destined to be the 

 greatest country in the world. There is nothing 

 lacking. We have abundance of coal and iron 

 and wood and stone, and so much silver that 

 our creditors are afraid we chall pay our debts, 

 wit h it. We have railroads running in every di- 

 rection which must depend on agriculture lartre- 

 ly for their future dividends. We have a rapidly 

 increasing population, with free schools and the- 

 ballot-box for all. 



