Rocky Mountain husbandman. [volume] (Diamond City, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1876-03-09
STOCK RAISIN G..
THE DUCHESS MANIA.

liIC tdSb S1A iii Win l. IIdfS
nothing for your paper. But, reading re-
Gently in the Kentucky livestock Record,
the account Of the proceedings Of the Short
horn Convention, my eye fell upon the dec
laration of one Of the speakers, which i'm
pels me to give you some thoughts suggest
ed thereby. have not the paper at hand
just now, but / think the expression was
about this: "The reason why the Duchess
family were SO far above Others in price was
that they merited it; that in fair rings they
had been universally successful"
am not going for q moment to dispute
the speakers sincere conviction of the fact;
but still, | believe he is mistaken. Ii, by
meriting, he means they are superior to all
others, / deny the fact, as a matter of judg-
ment upon the part of many of the best in
formed and most practical shorthorn breed
ers, as we'll as of 1irst-rate judges of cattle,
who are not breeders or dealers in short
horns. And, besides the conviction that the
price they bear is not, as a general thing,
the measure Of real superiority, [ know that
in individual cases it is not true. / saw a
bull calf sold last year, whose dam traced to
Adelaide, by Magnum Bonum, and whose
sire was (as the phrase Isl a young Phyllis,
and both sire and dam having ONE Duchess
blood Oh top, that was, in my opinion, and
that of good judges, superior to one / now
know of about the same age and a regular
Duke, that would sell for a hundred times
as much.
EI,a TN,,,taca Z r. .An 1n,,1E n { ~ f1,of Lnc
produced some very fine animals-yea,
some Of the very first order, but there are
some of them in the United States, having
been sold for extraordinary prices, that no
man, who is really q judge Of what consti-
tutes the really fine points in bull or cow,
would say are irst-rate animals. 1t is true
that some Of these may have taken premi-
ums at the best fairs In the State, but i have
seen and heard the doctrine announced, that
they ought to have the blue ribbon because
Of their enormous cost, and as a cOmmenda-
ton of the public spirit Of the men who
brought them into our midst. But 1 would
ask, how many Of these jewels nave been in
troduced into the fair rings? Tt has been
looked upon as a lowering Of their standing
to condescend to strive in the arena with
plebeians. Their superiority was q foregone
conclusion, and when the few, that have
been exhibited, entered the ring, they have
already been known by the judges, who
might as well have set at the house of one
Of their number, and passed Judgment Oh
the pedigrees and the price paid for some
one OF them by some wealthy man.
There are very few cattle in this part of
the country that have not more Or less
Duchess blood. If, then, the superiority of
the Duchess is u settled fact, there must be,
in all the mixed offspring, a deterioration,
or else the conviction forces itself that some
animals, not Duchess, can keep up the eX-
cellency, even though they dilute the Ouch
ess blood. But I deny that any merit of
which the Duchess may boast is d just meas
ure OF their extraordinary price. 1t there
was not another shortlorn on earth but the
few Duchesses, the prospective good to be
derived from breeding them with other
types OF cattle would not justify any man,
as a matter of public spirit, or as according
to the laws of Political Economy, in giving
forty thousand dollars for a single animal
whose life tenure is SO uncertain. The foun-
dation of the whole matter of worth in any
breed of cattle is that they will in the pro-
duction of beet, make early maturity and in
creased weight of first-rate flesh, so far in
advance of Others as to return a 9uid pra ouo
for the increased price. No mere appear
ance to crafty orr aesthetic views can for a