CHAPTER XIX. 

 PROOF PILED ON PROOF. 



As has been already stated the first crosses of the 

 Shorthorn on the Longhorn and other native types 

 had made a marked improvement but, unfortunately 

 for the best interests of a breed which was not solid- 

 colored, the western demand for Shorthorns in the 

 old days persistently prescribed "red-and-all-red" 

 as the only color wanted. The reason was plain. 

 Light or broken-colored bulls left a motley progeny 

 when mated with the black, dun or brindle cows so 

 common in the old Texan stock. Roan is the one 

 distinctive Shorthorn color, the one color never 

 counterfeited by any other breed. White and red- 

 and-white Shorthorns have also always been com- 

 mon. 



This range demand for red Shorthorns during the 

 boom days of the business led inevitably to the sac- 

 rifice by the Shorthorn breeders of Kentucky and 

 the central west of thousands of their best bulls, and 

 to the retention in many cases of inferior animals of 

 the right color for getting stock available for range 

 purposes — to the palpable injury of the breed. We 

 have only to observe a ring of Shorthorns at any of 

 our leading shows of today, where perhaps two- 

 thirds of all the best animals will be roan or white, 

 to realize what was really lost to the breed through 



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