Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1886-03-27
THE IMPROVED BREEDS OF
CATTLE. WHERE WILL THEY
GROW LARGEST AND BEST.

1t has been said Of men, that to be-
come great they must be born great,
must grow up in just rhe right locality,
and be environed by circumstances in
every way well cal culated to favor the
attainment OF greatness. Regarding
our improved breeds of cattle, it was
for long time supposed by many that
in this country the true habitate Of our
best cattle were within very limited
range; and Kentuckians were confident
that the little circle known as the blue
grass region was the only place in the
country where the beef breeds could be
bred and grown in the highest state of
perfection. Blu: the fact is simply this
the improved breeds are found, through
careful tests, not to be indigenous TO
any state or district; and even Ken
lucky can improve her cattle by sending
to Canada or Minnesota for fresh blood.
The question is not as with a tender
plant, or with the orange tree, which
can not be changed in their character
istics, but the whole matter Of success
hinges upon breeding to purpose, as
specimens of poultry are bred to
feather.
II any man is raising any particular
breed OF cattle, thinking that one will
succeed in this or that climate and no
other breed will, he may as we'll dis.
abuse his mind Of this erroneous idea,
because no breed has right to especial
degree of hardness that another breed,
where selections are judiciously made,
may not very readily attain to. AS a
rule, the COW that has the vitality and
form to give her success in the show
ring, has, for the very best OF reasons,
vitality to fit her for any climate where
any improved cattle beast can be
grown with profit. Ii is not difficult TO
conceive that the breeder and feeder
who had, from year to year, bred prize
winning cattle could remove his herd TO
a locality several degrees north, with
out losing the good points ani size he
had secured in the herd. 1t is not the
climate so much as it is the man that
makes the cattle, and while the winters
might begin little earlier, and the
springs little later than the herd has
been accustomed TO, and the mercury
fall little lower, still it should be
borne in mind that the vitality OF ami
mails that have been wisely bred is fully
equal 10 meeting a somewhat advancing
degree Of cold. Plants, TO quite de
gree, take on the temperature of the
surrounding atmosphere, while the live
beast has laboratory within 1t, which,
in both warm and cold weather, keeps
the temperature OF the body at about
9S degrees. This gives our domestic
animals such a wide range OF adapta-
bllity that farmer or breeder may
change his locality, emigrating to
country far distant, taking his live stock
with hun, while perhaps he may not be
able to transport and cultivate a single
variety OF fruit to which he has been
accustomed. The laboratory within the
living beast is equal to meeting ex-
changes, and wherever the
farmer can remove with his family, en-
joying health, to that locachty he can
remove his herd and there maintain it.
OF course, it is not difficult to deter
mine where cattle will grow largest and
best, Of it is proposed to make it con
dition that they remain out-of' doors
during the entire year, but while an un-
questionable advantage is gained from
the anti-malarial, crisp, bracing atmos-
phere of far north locality, size and
fair proportions can be better main
tanned by taking off the sharp edge of a
twenty or thirty degrees
below zero, through shelter.
1t is not usually sufficiently consid.
cred that farm animals, like the human
family, take many downward steps,
and have life materially shortened
through disturbances OF digestion, often
this condition arising quite
often from malarial influences which
disturb the liver. Hence,
what is lost in a northern locality,
through the greater consumption of
fuel, is made up in physical vigor-that
peculiar something through which men,
women and children alike are made 10
feel that their hold on life is made |
stronger. The homly saying, that
"what is good for man is good for
beast" has thoroughly close applca'
tion here, and il on the one hand, there |
are exactions made upon the vital
forces of the cattle beast, by reason OF |
being placed in a locality where the |
mercury falls low, there is found com.
inf uence which comes OF
added vIgor-the natural result OF |