Proceedixgs of the Farmers' Club. 251 



Make pigs contented, and now and then scratch their backs and get 

 them to take a little corn for variety. 



Dukiiam Bulls for the Gkeat Plains and the Pacific Slope. 



The President announced the presence of Mr. Dewey, of the Pacific 

 coast, and gave him opportunity to speak for the favored land. Mr. 

 Dewey, in some graceful remarks, alluded to the fact that he, like 

 many others in California, had long read and received benefits from 

 the reports of Club proceedings, and that it was great pleasure to him 

 to be present and get the matter in all its freshness. " It is an agree- 

 able thought," he continued, " that I see here the parent of a similar 

 institution to be founded on the Pacific slope. I remember that 

 some of you last summer were impressed with the importance of a 

 first-class agricultural journal for our States, and so urged. That 

 hint has been acted upon, and we have a Pacific Rural that is received 

 with great favor by our farmers. Our climate, soils, seasons and 

 fruits are so different from yours, that, while we can take your teach- 

 ings as a general guide, we need instructions more precisely calculated 

 for our people and their wants." 



Mr. F. D. Curtis — Since the subject of California is up, Mr. Chair- 

 man, I desire to say that I have received a letter from one of our cor- 

 respondents, Mr. Quinn, Yreka, Cal., in which he says : " I see Oscar 

 Eaton is driving the same kind of nails east that most of our cattle 

 men drive here, to wit : That cattle can be raised in large herds rov- 

 ing through dry, worthless mountain lands, so cheap that those invest- 

 ing in good stock and land cannot compete with them. I wish the 

 Club would discuss this subject." I am quite certain that improved 

 stock, kept in the manner that Mr. Quinn speaks of, will deteriorate 

 very fast. Under this system the breeding would be heterogeneous, 

 and bad qualities, which are easier bred, would be reproduced as well 

 as good ones. I am sure Short-horns under this system will run 

 down, and fresh blood have to be constantly brought in to keep up the 

 character of herds. The milking breeds will be injured also, for the 

 reason that the grains and dry grasses of the climate are not adapted 

 to the production of milk. Fine stock cannot be made without care 

 and judgment in their breeding, neither for beef nor milk. The beef 

 of the plains is different from the eastern. It is drier, and has a sort 

 of wild, uncertain taste. The more the raising of cattle is increased 

 in the wild, roving way, the greater will be the contrast between 

 them and the thoroughbred stock, which will be required more and 

 more to cross with them to improve them in all points. 



