533 



HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



CHAPTER XLIIL 



Conclusion — The Present and Future 



OPEN BATTLE OF BREEDS BENEFICIAL TO ALL. BEWARE OF SUBTLE MANIPULATION. 



It has come to be the settled principle of the 

 advanced nations that they go to war only to 

 obtain peace. That is to say, that in the case 

 of the more intelligent and, therefore, leading 

 nations, the sacrifices of war are followed by 

 the establishment of a beneficent pieace that is 

 generally worth all the cost. Justifiable war 

 IS a duty. 



The "Battle of the Breeds" has likewise been 

 beneficial beyond measure to all sound cattle 

 interests. Our pjoation in the "Battle of the 

 Breeds," and that of our predecessor, the Here- 

 ford champion, Mr. William H. Sotham, was, 

 likewise, one of duty and not of pleasure. Each 

 in turn maintained a sturdy fight, and put up 

 With all the hardships and trials incident to 

 battle. Yet, we dare say that the efforts of both 

 were prompted by a well-founded knowledge 

 that ultimately we must accomplish great good; 

 not simply to the Hereford cause but to the 

 whole cattle interest, and therefore to agricul- 

 ture generally. 



At the time we joined in the fight that Mr. 

 Sotham had been maintaining singlehanded for 

 over two score years, we found that the better 

 class of Shorthorns were kept in the back- 

 ground, and the efforts of leading Shorthorn 

 breeders were directed towards forcing upon the 

 Shorthorn breeders an inferior type of Short- 

 horns and this at fabulous prices. Our eff'orts, 

 directed as they were towards bringing a more 

 compact type into public favor, by proving the 

 Hereford s and their type the more practical 

 and profitable for beef production, were in no 

 wise intended to menace the Shorthorn breed, 

 but rather, it was a crusade directed particu- 

 larly against the selfish wishes and ill-conceived 

 plans of those Shorthorn breeders who were 

 booming what Mr. Sotham aptly characterized 

 as the "Bates mania." 



Unfortunately for the Shorthorn interest, 

 the breeding of the Bates family of Shorthorn 

 cattle had gotten — as the saying was — into the 

 hands of "men with more money than brains/' 



or rather, as we would put it, into the pjosses- 

 sion of "men of means without practical cattle 

 experience." Or, in other words, the Short- 

 horns were the pjets and playthings of men who 

 bred for pedigree rather than individuality. 

 These men, and others less opulent, who aped 

 them, were free handed in spending money with 

 agricultural papers to puff and flatter them in 

 their vain desires to appear as benefactors to 

 American agriculture. 



We have shown conclusively that' beginning 

 with the first agricultural paper, viz., "The 

 Albany Cultivator," then the "Ohio Farmer," 

 the "Michigan Farmer," the "National Live 

 Stock Journal," the "Live Stock Record," the 

 "Farmers' Magazine/' etc., down to the "Breed- 

 ers' Gazette," as they were each in turn estab- 

 lished, all were controlled in the interest of the 

 Bates Shorthorn, and the early files of the last 

 named journal, though now unquestionably the 

 leading agricultural journal of the world, prove 

 that it was, in its incipiency, fostered by the 

 Bates clique, though run ostensibly in the whole 

 Shorthorn interest. 



Most of these papers, still in existence, under 

 different management, now emphatically con- 

 demn what they formerlv advocated, and stren- 

 uously deny their partiality for any particular 

 breed. Y'et, regardless of denials, it must be 

 noticed that the old "first love" prevails very 

 marked in some instances. We can see some 

 reason for this, in their self interest, because, 

 although the Hereford is now acknowledged 

 the beef breed par excellence, and his tvpe has 

 been as far as possible appropriated and adopt- 

 ed by the meritorious families of Shorthorns : 

 yet, the Shorthorn advertisers predominate and 

 there has been extreme effort on the part of 

 certain of these editors to collect and publish 

 favorable Shorthorn data that would be com- 

 mendable, were they not bv comparison ex- 

 tremely and unwarrantedlv negligent in their 

 efforts to collect and publish similar informa- 

 tion in regard to the Herefords. 



