A HISTORY OF SHORTHORNS IN KANSAS 67 



the product of this herd fell to the lowest level. 

 The output was, however, taken as rapidly as 

 produced. It should be borne in mind that the 

 foundation for the Linwood herd had been laid 

 from the best Shorthorns then in the world and 

 from a herd which had admittedly reached its 

 highest possible stage of perfection. 



The problem Col. Harris had to solve was one 

 which has always been hard for the breeder. So 

 good an authority as Mr. Sanders tells us the 

 resort to inbreeding as practiced by Thomas 

 Bates, Abram Renick and Amos Cruickshank 

 has given the world its greatest triumphs but it 

 has been found exceedingly difficult to maintain 

 the standard of excellence in cattle so produced. 

 It is stated on the best of authority that Col. 

 Harris had serious trouble along this line. An 

 old Shorthorn breeder of sound judgment who 

 was a frequent visitor at Linwood has told me 

 that had it been at all advisable to use such a bull 

 as the best of Mr. Vaile's production crossed with 

 a Cruickshank cow, or the reverse, the result 

 would have been a splendid thing for the Lin- 

 wood herd. This, of course, is a theory, sub- 

 stantially supported by practice, but with the dis- 

 crimination shown in favor of Cruickshank cat- 

 tle at that period, little more could have been 

 done than was being done by using Norton's 

 Golden Drop. That the bull question was a ser- 

 ious one is well told by Mr. Sanders who was 



