512 



IIISTOEY OF HEEEFORD CATTLE 



journalist of America, and whether the claim 

 IS worth anything or not, he should sink his 

 personal friendship and sympathy for Mr. 

 Moninger in his higher duties as a journalist. 

 Mr. Sanders knows, or may know, that no two 

 or three-year-old steer can have eight teeth. 

 The rule requiring the examination of teeth to 

 determine the ages of animals in the future 

 was opposed vigorously by a large portion of 

 the Shorthorn element of the Board, and they 

 were able to defeat such action at their Jan- 

 uary meeting. It was, however, re-opened at 

 their February meeting and carried. 



"In the issue that has been made between the 

 Herefords and Shorthorns during the last ten 

 years, the Shorthorn advocates have never at- 

 tempted to meet the positions that we have 

 taken, but have undertaken to throw mud and 

 dirt instead. We advised a prominent member 

 of the Board that, while we should do all that 

 we could to advance and forward the success 

 of the shows made under the auspices of the 

 State Board of Agriculture of Illinois, until 

 some of these questions which have given rise 

 to a good deal of controversy were settled and 

 disposed of we should not be an exhibitor. We 

 received for a reply the following, which we 

 feel at liberty under the circumstances to make 

 public. We do withhold, however, the name 

 of the writer. We will say that he is not a 

 Hereford breeder and never has been, and so 

 far as we know, never expects to be. He says: 



" 'I am anxious to see your herd well repre- 

 sented at our large shows. You have done 

 more to bring a very valuable and meritorious 

 breed of cattle to the attention of breeders and 

 the public than any other gentleman on the 

 continent, and for the persistency in which you 

 have pressed the just claims of a meritorious 

 breed to a successful end, you deserve the praise 

 of the whole agricultural community. Indeed, 

 your zeal and determination in making known 

 the real merit of your favorite breed of cattle 

 has been and will be of untold benefit to the 

 breeders of Shorthorns, for it has aroused them 

 to the necessity of cultivating and developing 

 the better qualities of the Shorthorns, instead 

 of resting their claims on fancy pedigrees. 

 Pedigree is all well enough in its place and 

 for the purpose intended, but real and uniform 

 merit has a value more important.' " 



We have done very little in bringing forward 

 notices of commendations to our course in this 

 controversy, but we have much pleasure in 

 many letters we have received. The contest 

 which we have had to meet has been one of 

 trial and annoyance, but our work is done, and 

 inures not to our benefit but to the world, to 



the breeders of cattle and to the consumers of 

 their product. 



Our exposure of these frauds was not to 

 blacken or damage Mr. Moninger, or any other 

 man, but to secure fair, impartial and intelli- 

 gent judgment in passing upon the claims of 

 the different breeds of cattle ; and we wish to 

 state that we never considered Mr. Moninger 

 a sinner above all others, but there came at 

 last a feeling among exhibitors that they must 

 protect themselves, because those who were 

 managing the societies would not protect them. 

 From this on the decisions were, as a rule, 

 fairer, improving as the judgment and intelli- 

 gence of the managers allow it. This is all that 

 wo asked and to this we had a right. 



The foregoing is a repetition of part of much 

 similar matter published in the seventies and 

 eighties that at this writing (1898) has already 

 yielded much fruit of vast benefit to American 

 agriculture. We cannot refrain in this con- 

 nection from quoting a more recent correspon- 

 dence. There had been a tendency on the part 

 of the Board to lessen its vigilance, and on the 

 18th of February, 1898, we wrote to Mr. J. 

 Irving Pearce, then president of the Illinois 

 State Board of Agriculture, calling his atten- 

 tion to the necessity of adopting some definite 

 rule to determine the ages of live stock to be 

 exhibited at their annual fairs, and suggested 

 that the teeth indications were the surest 

 method of determining this question, and after- 

 wards sent to him cuts of teeth of horses, cattle, 

 sheep, and hogs, as adopted by the Eoyal Agri- 

 cultural Society of England. In replying to 

 my letter of the 18th, Mr. Pearce wrote as fol- 

 lows : 



"Chicago, March 4th, 1898. 

 "Mr. T. L. Miller, DeFuniak Springs, Fla. 



"Dear Sir: I have your letter of the 18th 

 ult. before me and note with pleasure the in- 

 terest you still continue to take in the annual 

 exhibitions of the Illinois State Board of Agri- 

 culture. 1 think it is not probable that there 

 will be another Fat Stock Show held .soon in 

 Chicago, the Board acting very wisely in mak- 

 ing fat stock divisions to the cattle and sheep 

 departments of the State Fair. The carcass 

 prizes, of course, have to be abandoned, as it 

 would be impossible to save the meat without 

 incurring more expense than the Board can at 

 this time stand. On account of the weather 

 and the likelihood of fat hogs to suffer from 

 the three or four loadings required to get them 

 to the Fair, it was thought impracticable to add 

 a fat stock division to that department. 



"Your table giving descriptions of the mouths 

 of cattle of different ages is very interesting to 



