316 



HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



"Time was when the supposed to be expert 

 in pedigrees would walk about the sale ring, 

 catalogue in hand, and when a magnificent 

 specimen of the Shorthorn race^ compact, ro- 

 bust, smooth, blocky and vigorous was led in, 

 would shake his head ominously and say to his 

 neighbor, in a patronizing way: 'Oh, yes, she 

 is a grand cow certainly; but look here — ' and 

 away back, some six or perhaps ten generations 

 removed, he would put his finger on the name 

 of Mrs. Motte, and say: 'Seventeen.' That 



RARE SOVEREIGN (10499) 81U8. 

 Bred by Earl of Coventry. 



would settle it; and the grand cow, a prize 

 winner herself, and descended from a race of 

 prize winners, would be knocked down at $150. 

 And then, when a little long-legged, effeminate 

 looking heifer was led into the ring, wheezing 

 and coughing, half-dead with tuberculosis, the 

 expert's eye would brighten and he would sing 

 out: 'Here's royalty for you! Look at that 

 pedigree — perfectly straight, without an out- 

 cross,' and the devotees of fashion would vie 

 with each other in their eagerness to show 

 that they knew what they were about, until 

 the worthless beast was carried well up into 

 the thousands of dollars. They bought this 

 Shorthorn because she was straight Bates, and 

 rejected that because she had this or that out- 

 cross five or ten generations back, although of 

 the two the latter was much the better animal. 

 A good pedigree is one which commences with 

 a good animal standing before you, and runs 

 back through an ancestry consisting of good 

 animals only; and the iDetter the individual 

 and the longer the pedigree made of such in- 

 dividuals only, the better the pedigree." 



HEREFORD BREEDERS SHOW UNTIRING ENERGY. 



(If 206a) 



Mr. Coburn,at that time an active Shorthorn 

 partisan and supporter, wrote as follows: 

 To the Editor of the "Breeders' Gazette": 



The breeders of Shorthorns have not, at any 



one of the four Fat Stock Shows held at Chi- 

 cago, been represented at all as the numbers 

 and well known merits of their cattle would 

 justify. The Shorthorns have been frequently 

 beaten by the Herefords — of which there are 

 comparatively few — not, as we think, because 

 the Herefojds are so much better in any re- 

 spect, but, first, because they are valuable cat- 

 tle, and secondly, but not least, because they 

 are in the hands of a few men who believe in 

 them, and who are energetic, rich and intensely 

 aggressive. They have money — some of them 

 money made in other than the cattle business 

 — ancl they know how to use it along in obtain- 

 ing the choicest specimens of their favorite 

 breed, or to combine it with wind, oil cake 

 and printer's ink, in the exact proportions that 

 will best accomplish their ends — viz., capture 

 the prizes from the Shorthorns and persuade 

 people to buy the Herefords. They have had a 

 goodly share of success, and they have earned 

 it, not by having a breed of cattle pre-emi- 

 nently the best, but by what the world calls 

 their enterprise; something that has much to 

 commend it, especially when something besides 

 wind is to be in it. We like the "untiring 

 energy" feature of their methods, and like 

 their cattle; but what we started out to say 

 was that the Shorthorn breeders must be seized 

 of that same spirit and go to work, not neces- 

 sarily to make anything new, but make the 

 most of the material already in their hands, or 

 at future Fat Stock Shows they will be left 

 so far out in the cold that nothing less than a 

 search-warrant will find them in time for the 

 next round-up. Unless they rouse themselves 

 to a sense of the true condition of these affairs; 

 to the fact that, while they have been resting 

 on their old-time honors and laurels, the other 

 fellows have made ready to retire with their 

 baggage, cups, cake and all the fresher laurels 

 and honors, they are, indeed, to be commis- 

 erated. 



The zeal and spirit possessed and displayed 

 by the Hereford men in the last few years, 

 backed up by plenty of money and a few good 

 animals, will win whether the Herefords are 

 generally the best cattle or not. The owners of 

 Shorthorns owe it to themselves and to the 

 great interest they represent to make a proper 

 cflort to maintain, at least, the fair fame and 

 name of their life-long favorites. It can be 

 easily done, and there will be no better time to 

 make a beginning in that direction than now. 

 The competitors are already in active motion 

 with a view to coming out first best. What 

 can the Shorthorn men say in response? 



There ought to be three hundred model 



