The Red Cloud chief., 1902-06-20
AMERICAS FINE CATTLE
VALUE OF SCIENCE IN BREEDING
PROVED HERE.
An Account of the Evolution Of Cattle In
America by an E~spert-Msny Breeds
combined In the So. Called Native Cat
tIe-Work Of Improving tho Herds. .

h%uSbandry of the Bureau of Animal
Industry. says in an Agricultural De
partmcnt bulletin. just issued. that
American breeders Of cattle have
eQuallcd if net cNccllcd the results
reached on the other side of the
water. But" he adds. mo suprem-
acy of cSccllcncc. no victory in show
ring or market. can cffacc the memory
Of the debt America owes to those
sturdy ycomcn whose names adorn
the best herd records of England and
Scotland"
Mr.. I,ommcl'S pamphlet is devoted to
n study of American breeds of beef
cattle. lie begins NJ the very begin.
ming. goinI .ack to that voyage Of
Columbus Oh which the first cattle
known in tn" Western Hemisphere are
supposed to have been brought over.
Other Spanish explorers and armed
Invaders followed ColumbuS's exam
pies, bringing not only cattle but horses
as well.
There was an abundance OF grass
and water. and as the Spaniards pcnc.
tratcd further into the interior OF the
country their herds in growing Jun.
bcrs followed them. From these sprnng
the native cattle of the West Indies
aud Mexico, the long horned steers of
Texas and the wild horses of the
plains.
The next cattle Immigration came
with the Portuguese tC Newfoundland
ana Nova Scotia. The French, too,
introduced cattle into Arcadia and New
France.
These were carried into tho far IN.
terror. and rs far back as l7JJ the
"rench missionaries in Illinois pos.
scsscd considerable herds Of cattle.
,iOrscS and swine.
Virginia got her cattle from England
soon after the settlement # James.
town. They multiplied in the Old DO.
mihion very rapidly. one contributing
cause being the fact that the law IN
those early days made the killing of
cattle n crime punishable with death.
The Pilgrim Fathers began the eat.
tie business with three hcifers and a
bull. brought over from England in the
ship Charity in 1924. New Hampshire
got her first cattle from Denmark.
New York from Holland. and Delaware
from Sweden. II about the time the
Charity landed the three heifers and
the bull.
The first shipment To the CarOlinas
was from England in 1870. while Geor.
gia was the last of all the colonies to
figure rs II market for The English OK.
port trade in breeding cattle.
Thus it was that the United States
got its first start in that cattle business
which In he year of grace 1902 has
made 1t possible To lave all the present
rumpns about the Meat Trust. The
stock gathered from various parts of
Europe were all 50 hopclessly inter.
crossed in course of time that their
Identity was lost, with the result that
II forcfathers had what were known
rs the native cattle Of the Unircd
States. or this stock Mr.. Rommel
Y
What the native stock was like we
can best imagine from the stories of
men now old, and from the scrub stock
That Is even yet the cycsOre of many
American pastures. Blood CT Spanish,
Swedish. French. Dutch ana English.
with. maybe. II dash OF buffalo as they
wandered westward. gave this stock u
cosmopolitan character that was repre-
sentative, perhaps, but hardly profila.
BILE.
Lack of care by farmers, with no
BLACKWELL To point the way [, i'm.
provement, brought about a tyne of
animal that Il century has not yet
been able to absorb"
In the years from 1860 TO 1887 there
was an awakening. That was the era
OF III" lermeniivc stage of Anglo Saxon
cattle breeding.
1t was in 1860 that Robert Blackwell
began the operations which left so
fasting an Impress upun the cattle
breeding business. He was the first
man to practice systematic inbrceding.
Nrouhd his name those of all great
improvcrS Of live stock group them
selves, and from the lessons he taught
10y example every breeder to this day
learns the fundamentals of his craft.
lie was Il Worcestershire man, given
little to talking, aud not at all 10 writ.
ing about his methods. A great deal
that he learned by careful experiment
II" Kept To himself.
lilS aim was 10 secure cattle that
would fattcn on the smallest amour,
OF food, and the great success of his
arr was revealed only by what he did
AMI not by what he told anybody to do
This secret Mr.. Rommel Describes "A,
i%hhrceding IN the hands of Il master
IN" Surest way known TO secure a.
Improvement of stock.
"out of the dark ages Of ignoranc,
ana the scrub says Mr.. Rommel. "h,
leaps ana by hounds, using what mate
rial he had NJ hand. and moulding |
To his will, the English farmer de,el
'prd I'll" modern breeds; producin.
tender meat where tough and leather,