VOL. XLIX. NO. 2112. 
NEW YORK, JULY i 9 , i 89 o. 
PRICE, FIVE CENTS. 
$ 2.00 PER YEAR. 
2 
A GROUP OF HEREFORD CALVES. 
T HE photograph from which the picture shown at 
Fig. 171, is reproduced, was taken on a ranch near 
Cheyenne, Wyoming. It is evident that these little 
white-faced fellows were greatly interested in the camera. 
The biggest calf or “master” has forgotten to assert his 
dignity. On ordinary occasions he would hardly permit 
his little companions to crowd him out of the most com¬ 
fortable position. They all seem to realize that something 
of unusual importance is going on and they are doing their 
best to be worthy of the occasion. Perhaps they realize 
that they are representative citizens of a would-be State, 
so they propose to show that a barbed wire yard in Wyo¬ 
ming may show as high a degree of dignity and good order 
as any barn yard or pasture in the cultured East. 
These white-faced young gentlemen have a very honor¬ 
able and important work in life. It is their mission to im¬ 
prove the shape, size and quality of the future range cattle. 
Those of us who will doubtless be called upon to eat the 
beef produced by .their grand- 
children and great-grand¬ 
children will certainly wish 
them well. May they thrive 
and prosper behind their wire 
fence I The Hereford cattle 
are very popular on the West¬ 
ern ranges, particularly in 
Southern Wyomingand 
Northern Colorado. Well- 
bred and shapely young bulls 
are in good demand by rauch- 
men who wish to improve the 
quality of their stock. It is 
now generally recognized that 
there is no money in raising 
inferior beef cattle even on the 
“ free lands” of the far West. 
The cattle market is now 
sharply divided into distinct 
grades, and steers must not 
only be well-fed but well-bred 
in order to command a pay¬ 
ing price. The old “ range 
steer ” with its extra abund¬ 
ance of horn and bone is pass¬ 
ing away and the larger and 
better shaped grade is taking 
its place. While all the im¬ 
proved beef-breeds are being 
used on the range as breed¬ 
ing stock, perhaps no breed is 
more highly esteemed by its 
special champions than the 
Herelord. The Short horn 
and the Aberdeen-Angus 
breeders claim to be fully 
satisfied with their cattle, nut 
the champions ot the “ white 
faces” are a very enthusiastic 
set of men. The Herefords,/ 
young and old, are “ rustlers ”> 
to use an expressive ranch term. They are tough and 
hardy, bred for many years with but one purpose in view— 
that of producing the most beef that can be packed into 
the desirable parts of a steer. No one has yet heard of a 
milking strain’ of Hereford cattle; it is not pretended 
that they excel as dairy animals ; they are beef cattle, 
first, last and all the time.” It will be readily seen why 
such animals should be in great demand on the plains, 
w here beef making is the sole business. The very fact that 
there is no dairy history to be found in the pedigree of 
Hereford cattle is an argument in their favor for use in a 
section where dairying on a large scale is impossible. It 
may seem strange to some of our readers to learn that 
Hereford cattle are quite popular iu parts of New Hamp¬ 
shire and Maine, where one would suppose dairy cattle 
alone would pay. In these sections oxen are still used for 
farm work and the peculiar shape and heavy weight of the 
Hereford ox gives him a great advantage over other breeds. 
While Devon oxen are smart and quick besides being hand¬ 
some and easily matched, Herefords are heavier and 
stronger. Many of the localities where these oxen are kept 
are back from the lines of railroad, so that the dressed 
beef monopoly does not interfere with the sale of home¬ 
grown beef, and Hereford oxen are valuable property. 
WHAT AMERICAN SHEEP HUSBANDRY WANTS. 
The “best, breed;" methods of improvement; Nature's 
method; effects of changes to netter and worse con¬ 
ditions; causes of deterioration; lessons from “Old 
Country;" experience and experiments; necessity 
of looking to small things; improvements due to 
“hard times." 
The real facts are that American sheep husbandry in 
1890 should be of a more sensible, business-like, diversified 
character than heretofore. It must be such as affords a 
profit over and above a fair interest onthecapital invested, 
and the expenses of feeding and caring for the animals. 
The general complaint is that it does not pay at present 
prices of wool. That it costs too much to produce it is the 
direct conclusion. It has been a question which breed 
pays the best. More time and discussion have been given 
to breeds than to profitable management. The best breed 
is the one that pays the best. It may be a typical Ameri¬ 
can Merino, a mutton Merino of tne French family or an 
A GROUP OF HEREFORD CALVES. Fig. 171 
American type of similar characteristics—a Cotswold, 
Lincoln, Leicester,South Down,Shropshire, Oxford, Hamp¬ 
shire or Suffolk Down, or it may be a common scrub 
sheep—the choice depending upon a long list of circum¬ 
stances. It is a pity that it should be a scrub; but if it is, 
let it be so. There are no longer doubts about the adapta¬ 
tion of sheep to environments. If these surroundings are 
suited to the sheep, and the sheep to the surroundings, 
sheep-husbandry is profitable, and if the scrub is the only 
sheep that can maintain itself profitably, it is the best 
one to keep. 
The man who has a paying flock of sheep, should not 
change; but hold an even hand, selecting carefully and 
rigorously in the direction of a more profitable type. Such 
improvements of the flock may be slow; but this will 
render it useful, uniform and permanent. Nature’s 
methods of amelioration are almost imperceptible; but 
they are safest. Man’s methods are often so violent that 
they cannot be maintained with uniformity and perman¬ 
ence. “ Haste makes waste ” in the improvement of flocks 
as in anything else. It is often said that the result of 
the crossing of the Cotswold' ram on the Merino ewe is 
uncertain and irregular, tending “ to sport.” This is be¬ 
cause the cross is too violent—too radical. There is too 
great a dissimilarity in the physiological characteristics 
of the two breeds, and in the soils that produced them. 
It will require more time and breeding skill to secure the 
desired harmony than most men are ready to give. Nature 
never jumps at conclusions as man does. Man may study 
Nature’s laws and methods and work with them, but Na¬ 
ture resents violent interferences. When breeds are estab¬ 
lished (and they are only established by conforming to 
Nature’s conditions) they belong to and are produced by 
the peculiar and subtle influences belonging to the environ¬ 
ments. Any radical change affects the character of the 
breed at once not only in size, form and maturity, but in 
covering. A poor sheep belongs to poor environments, 
whether in a wild or domestic state. So of every grade of 
sheep up to the highest improved breeds. The better the 
natural conditions the better the sheep. The poorer the 
natural conditions surrounding them, the poorer the sheep. 
Man’s presence varies these natural conditions. He may 
thus improve his flock or he may degenerate them as he 
voluntarily or involuntarily 
decides. Animals belonging 
to a poor breed taken from 
their habitat and placed on a 
better one at once respond to 
the improved conditions and 
very soon have no resemblance 
to their former selves. They 
hasten to meet the better sur¬ 
roundings in an improved 
carcass and fleece. No do¬ 
mestic animal responds so 
surely and promptly to these 
changes as the sheep. A sheep 
removed from highly artificial 
surroundings, such as man in 
his highest skill can afford, to 
hard, pinched conditions, fails 
not to show its resentment by 
rj w taking on the same hard, 
pp| * pinched character as sur- 
® - ’ • MB? round it. It quickly becomes 
a scrub in every quality. \ t 
can maintain its type only 
under the conditions that 
gave it the means of its im¬ 
provement. 
It is by disregarding these 
laws of adaptation that breed¬ 
ers are so often^disappointed 
in their expectations. It is 
something of an experiment 
since no man can tell the 
effect of care, feed, soil, tem¬ 
perature and geological in¬ 
fluences upon the sheep he 
proposes to raise. The in¬ 
fluences of shade, sunshine, 
moisture, drought and the 
water sheep are required to 
drink are factors too impor¬ 
tant and uncertain to be fore. 
told with mathematical certainty. By selecting a flock of 
sheep from a soil quite resembling the farm they are to be 
put upon, the chances that they will remain as they were are 
increased ; but if taken from a poor farm with poor care 
to a richer farm where they get a better food supply and 
better attention, the results will be, almost invariably, 
satisfactory. If the opposite course should be taken in 
every particular the results will be unsatisfactory. 
These things are not observed in the selection of flocks 
or in breeding animals chosen to Improve the flocks. 
The changing from one farm to another of very similar 
character has been known to exert a change in the devel¬ 
opment and usefulness of animals, especially highly-bred 
sheep, that could not be accounted for by anything else. 
Flocks selected from different farms, equally well bred 
(even bred in line), never show the special and desirable 
uniformity that belongs to sheep occupying the same lands 
for a number of years. By these violent crossings and 
equally violent removals of sheep from poor land to rich, 
and, worse yet, from rich lands to poor, with corresponding 
neglect, we can account for the degeneracy of flocks. The 
very best sheep badly placed and cared for sometimes be¬ 
come so stunted, dwarfed and run-out, as to be little, if 
any, better than scrubs. It must not be objected to if 
