304 THE MANAGEMENT AND FEEDING OF CATTLE 



attempt to grow cattle for exhibition should give due 

 thought to the performance of the near ancestry when 

 this can be ascertained. But in growing animals purely 

 for the block, this may not be ascertainable, as, in some 

 instances, the future winners have been obtained from 

 feed lots even, in which young animals from the range 

 have been gathered to be grown into baby beef. 



When grown for breeding, the rules of the fairs of 

 today make it necessary that they shall be purely bred, 

 and properly so. In what is known as the fat classes, 

 that is, the classes which consider only fitness for the 

 block, in some instances, purity in breeding is called for, 

 but in others it is not. The fact is significant that in 

 the grand sweepstake prizes, that is, the highest prizes 

 in the classes shown according to age, the grades or 

 crossbreds are more frequently winners than pure- 

 breds. Such a result would seem to indicate that there 

 is, in some instances at least, a renovating power in 

 alien blood. 



In some instances, pure-bred animals shown are 

 bred by the exhibitor, but more frequently the very 

 highest winners are not so bred, but purchased. This 

 fact shows the comparative infrequency with which 

 animals possessed of what may be termed phenomenal 

 possibilities of development appear. Those prepared for 

 the fat classes only are purchased to a greater extent 

 even than the former. The instances in which herds 

 of but ordinary size produce phenomenal winners from 

 time to time are very rare, but they are not entirely 

 wanting, and when found they reflect great credit on the 

 judgment and skill of the breeder. Even the agricul- 

 tural experiment stations have not in the past been able 

 to produce many of the prize-winning animals which 

 they have shown at the leading li\'e stock fairs. 



When the effort is made to breed such animals at 

 home in the pure-bred form, the necessity for a high 

 standard of excellence in the form of the parents and 



