A RANCHMAN'S RECOLLECTIONS 



by E. F. Swinney of the First National Bank of 

 Kansas City. The farm was managed by Charles 

 Wirt, one of the best all-around farmers and stock- 

 men whom I have known. He was an unusually 

 good feeder. Aged steers from the stockyards were 

 sent over every year, and mares from the packing- 

 house stables were sent over, bred, and returned for 

 work until within safe foaling time. Wirt was not 

 a pedigree man, except that his breeding records 

 were infallible, but he was backward in his book- 

 keeping. Mr. Armour went to the farm frequently, 

 taking his two boys Watson and Lawrence, now vital 

 factors in the Chicago plant. He knew that I loved 

 the outdoors, and one day asked me to go along. 

 While there Wirt asked me to help him with his 

 herdbook. It wound up with my taking charge of 

 that end, and, later, the breeding and public sale end. 



Herefords were beginning to swing back. The 

 range was getting much interested, and I began to 

 see, under Mr. Armour's progressive methods in 

 everything, that the herd had a future. So, with a 

 penchant for publicity, I began naming the heifers 

 with an Armour prefix, after the first year. The 

 celebrated Armour Maids were all born in 1894, the 

 Armour Naiads in 1895, and later came the long 

 list of "flowers" and other feminine names, with the 

 Armour prefix. 



"Billy" Cummings, Armour's cow buyer, probably 

 one of the best buyers in history, was in close touch 



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