Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1884-02-02
FAT-STocK SLOWS AS0 The SHORT
HoRHS.
6esf Cattle Must Stand the Test Of. the
6Iock.

6ssf Cattle Must Stand the Test Of. the
6Iock.
VIM, Warfield In the Breeders Gazette.
am sorry that the Gazette found
it necessary to apologize to its read
ers forthe amount Of space IL gave
10 the recent fat cattle shows al
Chicago and Kansas City. In my
judgment, nothing has been inau.
gurated in recent years more full
of sprOmiSe. to the cattle interest
than these great shows !; and about
nothing else does it behOove the
breeder to keep himself SO well in.
formed. Breeders of thoroughbred
stock Of other kinds have always
had a test Of pretension close at
hand by which fraud might be de.
tected and fancy regulated. For
the horseman there is the track. =.
performances upon which necessa-
rlly set values and check theoretic
claims. Races OF rapid reproduc-
fion, such as swine, were quickly
brought to the practical scale and
block. Forsheep, the yearly wool
clip, the scale of prices at the fac
tory, the market value of the car
cass-all lay too near at hand to
permit unveritied assertions of su-
perior excellence to impose long
upon d suffering public. The breed
ing of thoroughbred cattle alone
was in condition which could de-
generate into a mere fancy and still
remain profitable. Reproduction
here is SO slow, values SO great,
tests SO difficult and.s expensive,
popular ignOrances so dense, that the
highest pretention stood good chan
ces of being accepted Just because
ofits pretension and thoroughbred
breeding continually exhibited ten
denotes (Which were alarming
enough to those who had the inter-
est truly at heart) to entirely divorce
itself from practical ends. The
butter and milk test among the
Jerseys furnished a check to their
breeder, which, if not complete, is
real, and must, in the long run,
prove operativein wedding out the
bad preserving the good. Aristo-
cratic tendencies, unjust diScrimina-
tions have not been: absolutely ex-
cluded by ii in the past. / can
speak freelyisince l have not been a
sufferer from them, but l have seen
great injustice done by arbitrary
and unjust rules, and great harm
by color prejudice; but such cases
must become rarer and rarer in the
future, and if the butter test be per-
sisted in it is hard to see why all
will not come right in the end.
No such easy test Is, however, pos
sible for beet, as distinguished from
mill breeds. Ripening for the
butcher is an injury TO usefulness in
the breeding pen the actual test Of
the block is the end OF all things.
We who breed for beef qualities
can not bring our animals to the ac-
tual test, and afterwards breed from
the best. If we can not, however,
test the Individual, we can at least
testsihe breed, the tribe, the blood.
And whatever helps to this test is
a boon no less to the breeder than
to the feeder, butcher and consun-
ing public.
All breeders may not think SO.
| have been astounded TO see the
which has been man
.CSted in some quarters to the re-
-nlt of these shows, and / am sure
tlIa; Kentucky breeders, as rule,
10 not recognize the Importance OF.
them or their probable or desirable
Influence on breeding. Were l
asked who of all Kentuckians were
doing most for Short.horn Interest
to-day, 1 should not hesitate to say
Messrs. Morrow Il Reniek. The
man or men who will show by act
ual appearance at these shows, and
by the actual trial there upon the
block, that the Short-hOrn' cattle,
and what Short-horn cattle are the
best feeders beasts or the besl butch
er's carcasses, is the man or men
who will make Short-horn cattle
worth money in the market and
direct the breeder of the future to
what Short horn types are prof n
hie to breed. Say what We will
and do what we will toss as we
may our little fancies from one Ia
now; discourse as learned
ly as we have a mind to AS To the
services of this one and the flaws Of
that, as to concentration of blood"
"purity of descent, loyalty to the
fat-cattle shows of the
great cities of the West are going
to, and ought to, be the great law
givers of the future.
They are going 10 give the law as
to what breeds are to flourish on
the great plains and pasture lands;
and they ought to. The young
West is not avaricious FOR names,
1t wants beef. Its new bTeeders
may confess ignorance-of exhibit
it apart from cOnfessiOn-of the
history of the various tribes of cat
tie, the differing values that are
to each, the fitness Of
each for suelI and such ends or cir
but the veriest cowboy
can see and understand the argu-
lnent of these shows. For one,
put me with the cowboys. The
champion prize at Kansas City or
Is n better reconmcn dation
Of a breed to me than twenty vol
n