372 A HISTORY OP HEREFORD CATTLE 



John D. Gillett, Pioneer Exhibitor. — The late 

 John D. Gillett of Elkhart, 111., was the acknowl- 

 edged cattle king of the cornbelt at that date. 

 His great red steers, the envy of all of his con- 

 temporaries, topped the Chicago Christmas markets 

 and were the first American cattle to go forward 

 alive to London. He was the real founder of the 

 American export cattle trade, which afterwards 

 grew to such great proportions, reaching its climax 

 in the year 1905, when cattle valued at $42,256,291 

 were landed in England from United States ports, 

 chiefly for the London and Liverpool trade. The 

 decline of this great trade has, however, been even 

 more rapid in recent years than was its rise; the 

 domestic supply has now fallen below the needs of 

 our own market and prices have risen to a level that 

 makes it impossible to ship cattle abroad at a profit. 



The Gillett cattle were to all intents and purposes 

 purebred Shorthorns — ^not registered, but descended 

 from sound old Kentucky stock. Mr. Gillett was a 

 big man, mentally and physically, and he did things 

 in a big, open-handed way. He owned a great estate 

 of rich corn-and-bluegrass land, maintained a large 

 cow herd for the production of his own steers, and 

 annually sold some of his best bull calves to other 

 enterprising steer-breeders who sought to emulate 

 his example. Chief among these should be men- 

 tioned the late Hon, D. M. Moninger, Galvin, la., 

 whose fame as a producer, feeder and exhibitor of 

 prime cattle became second only to that of Mr. Gil- 

 lett himself. 



