Thirty-fourth Annual Convention. ^^ 



photograph of old Mercury, one of the grandest dairy sires that 

 America ever knew. Note his horn, it is fine at the base, why? 

 I will tell you why. A dairy cow is a high development of a 

 maternal of the cattle race. Darwin brought to light a great 

 law of Nature when he used the term, "the survival of the fittest." 

 The survival of the fittest nature is the survival of the strongest 

 and that test is always established by the law of battle. That 

 is why the Buffalo bulls on the prairie would fight and struggle ; 

 we found ground during our frontier life and experience where 

 the sod was broken by their contests. The strongest survived 

 and became the sire of the succeeding herd. That is a charac- 

 teristic of the whole animal race, it holds true in reference to a 

 herd of dairy cattle. As a consequence of that law of battle you 

 observe how our cattle fight, it is a part of their heredity. If 

 you have a necessity to tackle a bull never approach him in front, 

 he is ready for that place of attack. Take him at the rear, he 

 does not know how to meet you there. In his neck is his tower 

 of strength, a heavy neck, a heavy shoulder and a heavy horn. 

 These are three towers of strength. A buffalo is particularly 

 strong at those three points. The same is true of our Herefords, 

 see the horns, crests, and shoulders which they have. In the 

 well bred shorthorn of today, that has some superior dairy blood 

 in his ancestry, you will often find a good horn, often with a 

 thin shoulder. We will observe this law a sire appears in fine 

 dairy breeding. Nature says this dairy animal is a great mother, 

 the mother does not fight. She will be fought for, and in re- 

 sponse to that law nature will begin to reduce the towers of 

 strength. That is where we get the crumpled horn which we 

 sing and talk about, and the thin shoulder. Now understand in 

 the sire with a thin neck, horn and thin shoulders you have na- 

 ture's testimony that that sire is backed by a line of dairy an- 

 cestors. The dairy sire is the son of his mother. 



Important to Select by Form, as a Check on the Dangers from Reversion. 



Important to select by form, as a check on the dangers 

 from reversion. 



I have now given you two law points in law of battle as 

 affecting dairy breeding and now just for one moment, I want 

 to tell you the absolute necessity of our observing them, and I 

 can tell it best by telling a story. O'ld General Sherman one day 

 was talking about himself and comparing himself with General 



