SOME AMERICAN BREEDERS. 277 



different breeds for the dairy business, and settled on the Holstein as the profit- 

 able breed to handle. 



Henry C. is now advanced in years, but his eldest son, Le Roy F., is the 

 active manager of the stock farm. He is handling one of the fine herds of pure- 

 breds in Wiscbnsin. He was reared in this rich valley where crops never fail 

 and rains come about to suit the convenience ; and has been a handler of fine 

 stock all his life. " Turn the cows in at the gate " is the family joke upon him, 

 which simply means to the reader that Le Roy F. is a great lover of fine cows. 

 He was graduated from the agricultural department of the State University, 

 and is consequently up with the theory as well as the practice of handling fine 

 stock. He states: " We are Holstein men from the ground up. We know 

 what we are doing because we have tried all of the best breeds, and find the 

 Holstein a long way in the lead. We have in our herd a member of the dis- 

 tinguished Parthenea family as a herd bull ; Mercedes, A aggie, Netherland, 

 Astrea, Echo and Scholton families are also represented here. Our Nettie 

 Scholton is hardly equalled by any other cow in the state. Her record of 93 

 Ibs. of milk in one day and 30 Ibs. 14 oz. of butter in one week stands among 

 the lead of great cows. We are here to stay in the Holstein business." 



MR. C. H. KRUEGER of Lisbon, la., proprietor of the Lisbon Valley Stock 

 Farm, was born in Germany. He came to this country in 1872, and has han- 

 dled fine cattle all his life. He moved to Iowa in 1879, and settled in Lisbon. 



Mr. Krueger was married in 1883, as he states, to "the best woman in 

 Iowa." She was a farmer's daughter, and took great delight in fine cows; and 

 together they embarked in the business of handling Holsteins a little less than 

 ten years ago. They had tried common cows for dairying, but soon learned 

 that the Holsteins were far more profitable, and began to keep them exclu- 

 sively. They now have one of the best-bred herds, and some of the best indi- 

 vidual cows, in Iowa. A large number of their cows are in Advanced Registry. 



An agricultural college man who examined this herd not long ago said it 

 was the finest herd of cows he had ever seen. Three cows in this herd this sea- 

 son (1896) took premiums in the competitive test for officially-authenticated 

 records made by the Holstein-Friesian Association. The Kruegers have sold 

 during the past few years a large number of bulls, and heifers, and cows, and 

 their customers are always highly pleased with the stock. A member of their 

 herd, Bryonia Albia, won second prize in the great test, in which there were 

 nearly a hundred cows in competition, and about twenty winners. Mech- 

 thilde's Sir Henry of Maplewood is one of the sires of this herd, and by them is 

 considered the greatest of sires. 



MR. SAMUEL A. LANGDON, now of Morrison, 111., was born on June 17, 1833, 

 in Berkshire county, Massachusetts. His father, Amos Langdon, was an 

 extensive farmer and stock breeder and was a member of the Massachusetts 

 Legislature in 1840 and in 1852. Young Langdon remained on the farm with 

 his father during his minority, and received his education in the common 

 schools and a business course at Bacon's Commercial College at Cincinnati, O. 



At the age of twenty-two years he went to Ross county, Ohio, and was for 

 several years station agent at the town of Lyndon on what is now the Balti- 

 more & Ohio Southwestern railroad. He was also engaged in the grain trade 

 and merchandise up to 1865, when he was elected treasurer of Ross county and 

 re-elected in 1867 and removed to Chillicothe, the county seat, and served four 

 years in that capacity. 



His health being somewhat impaired by the close application to business, 

 and his family also being in poor health and thinking a change of climate would 

 be beneficial, he removed in 1871 to Whiteside county, Illinois, and purchased a 

 farm near the city of Morrison. His first intention was to engage in the breed- 

 ing of Shorthorn cattle, but this breed not proving satisfactory, in 1881 he 

 purchased his first Holstein cattle, five cows and a bull. In this lot was the 

 celebrated cow Minnie Winkle, No. 405 H. H. B.; a cut of this cow will be 

 found in Vol. 3, H. F. H. B. She was a noted show animal at that time and 

 one of the best of the breed. 



The starting of this herd was the first herd of pure bred Holsteins in 

 Whiteside county. They were a great curiosity as many had never seen any- 

 thing of the kind. 



