ILLINOIS DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 95 



The Short Horn has strong rivals in appealing to the first two classes, 

 but is unsurpassed in claims in favor of the third. This third class outnum- 

 bers both the others. The average good farmer in the west wants cattle 

 both for milk and beef. He cannot afford to keep a cow a year simply to 

 raise a calf, he cannot afford to disregard size and form for beef making. 



The best specimens of the breed are unsurpassed as beef animals. Nat- 

 urally the breed has good dairy qualities. It always has been in the 

 past and still is the chief dairy breed of England in practice and at the dairy 

 shows taking more prizes than all other breeds combined. 



The general farmers aim is to possess a cow that at her best will fill the 

 pail, and when dried off will rapidly pad her ribs with meat; and for this 

 purpose no breed has been found that affords the requisite better than 

 the Short Horn, which is the result, as we have told you, of many hundred 

 years of thoughtful amalgamation of the best by the pioneers of agricul- 

 ture so far back as the 12th century. 



A cow that will milk abundantly and fatten heavily at the same time; 

 that will be broad over the crops (behind the shoulders) and loaded with 

 rounds in full yield of milk, butter and cheese, yet dances will-o-the-wisp 

 like in the distance, is it not most pre bable that the cow to first appear 

 in that distance is to be the Short Horn cow of the future? 



I have gone over this subject very thoroughly, and have pages and 

 pages that I could read you. The Short Horn cattle as have been demon- 

 strated can be so well adapted to so many circumstances that they are 

 more nearly to the farmer's liking. They are handier to manage and there 

 is less fear of their going astray. There is not a farmer that breeds Jer- 

 seys and Holsteins this day that could not say he would doubt very much 

 whether his cattle could take the usage the Short Horn can. I am not 

 advocating this rough usage, but I am stating that such usage that the 

 farmers' cows of Illinois and Wisconsin are getting and are likely to get 

 for some time to come. 



