APPENDIX 



551 



A TRIBUTE TO T. L. MILLER. 



•Por those of you who had the privilege of 

 personal acquaintance with Mr. Miller, my 

 heart is full of sympathy, realizing as I do that 

 your loss must be greater than mine — and mine 

 IS great — for our acquaintance was one of cor- 

 respondence. Nevertheless, the kindly nature, 

 the broad, public spirit, the generous impulse 

 which shone from those pages from the hand 

 of T. L. Miller, with a reality and magnetism 

 never to be forgotten, lent counsel and en- 

 couragement to one of the youngest breeders 

 in the Hereford Association in his daily fight — 

 not only in the "battle of the breeds," but in the 

 "pioneer" work of developing and promoting 

 the great live stock industry of the South. 

 More than all others, Mr. Miller has been in 

 sympathy and in touch with my work and I 

 publish his first letter as an example of a noble, 

 generous spirit, in the hope that its suggestions 

 may help other breeders whose experience may 

 not yet be ripened into years of silver-gray. 



Mr. T. F. B. Sothani appreciates the neces- 

 sity of steadfast devotion to one's aims and 

 principles in the up-hill but winning fight for 

 good cattle, and probably Mr. Sotham is best 

 qualified of any breeder living to do justice to 

 Mr. Miller — and Mr. Sotham has done so ad- 

 mirably. 



After Mr. Miller's retirement from his active 

 business to the milder climate of Florida, he 

 saw the possibilities of the successful raising 

 of good beef cattle in the South, and labored 

 constantly for the advancement of this project. 

 He believed, and he knew when he believed, 

 that the breed par excellence best suited to the 

 climatic and other conditions in the Southern 

 States is the Hereford, that the South is eager 

 for an improvement on their small stock and 

 that the Hereford — "native" cross— is the one 

 to produce the desired result. Mr. Miller had 

 already secured agreements with the L. & N. 

 railroad, the Plant System, and the Florida 

 Central to give free transportation on pure-bred 

 stock into that territorv and expected other 

 roads to do the same. He was also promoting 

 Hereford interests in other equally broad- 

 minded ways, and I am glad to have the oppor- 

 tunity of paying this tribute of admiration 

 and respect to one about whom it jmay be said : 

 To those who know thee not, no words can 



paint ; 

 And those who know thee, know all words are 



faint! 

 —Murray Boocock, in Breeders Gazette, April 



11, 1900. 



Mr. Boocock (Tj 379) forwards the following 

 letter for publication, written to him by Mr. 

 Miller from De Funiak, Fla., under date of 

 March 23, 1898: 



"I notice your purchase of the $3,000-bull at 

 Emporia. This brings you and your letter of 

 July 1 before me again, and gives you promi- 

 nence among Hereford breeders. How long have 

 you been breeding Herefords? The late Hon. 

 John Merryman, Cockeysvilie, Md., was one of 

 the earlier breeders. I think he commenced in 

 the fifties — his widow and son are both breeders 

 now, as I presume you know. 



"Permit me to call your attention to the fact 

 that in Herefordshire, England, the breeders 

 there carry a given number of cows, it may be 

 twenty to sixty — as many as they care for — 

 never more, never less — and after a cow has two 

 to four calves she is turned off and a heifer 

 has taken her place. Cows thus treated bring 

 close to steer price for beef. Could A^irginia 

 or Pennsylvania adopt this plan they would 

 find a profitable business. This refers to the 

 average farmer, who would keep common cows 

 and use a Hereford bull. If I were in Virginia 

 or Pennsylvania, I would cultivate such trade. 



"Say with twenty cows, there would be ten 

 steers a year to go oft'. At two years ,old they 

 would weigh 1,200 to 1,400 pounds, and when 

 the heifers come of age he would turn oft' twen- 

 ty beeves a year, or say close to $1,000: in this 

 way he would improve his farm. He may let 

 his calves run with the cows until six months 

 old, or wean and use the milk, feeding skim 

 milk to calves. There is no better butter cow 

 than the Hereford. 



"This is what Eastern farmers need. If you 

 would cultivate such a trade and make Wash- 

 ington your market, I think you would find it 

 a success." — Breeders' Gazette, April 11, 1900. 



It was singularly appropriate that among the 

 pall bearers at the funeral of the late T. L. 

 Miller, held at Evanston, 111., March 18, 1900, 

 were Mr. T. F. B. Sotham, President of the 

 Hereford Cattle Breeders" Association; Mr. 

 George F. Morgan, the veteran Hereford breed- 

 er, who assisted Mr. Miller in his early days as 

 a Hereford breeder, and Mr. Tom Smith, long 

 manager of Mr. Miller's Highland Farm and 

 herd at Beecher. 111., and prominent now as a 

 breeder of Hereford cattle.- — Breeders' Gazette, 

 March 28, 1900. 



