The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-01-25

of which is Hickory valley, tennessee,
near the Alabama line, bro, 'ght adaitionai
laurels for the southland aste cattle rais-
ing section at the internarfonaS, III beceih-
ber.
The Lespedeza farm comprisee lo'ooV
acres, was formerly a series of run-e own
cotton farms 1t was purchased not 1N' VI
the purpose of raising cattle, but as b
game preserve. The owner. who had OBJ
served the magnificent Shorthorn herds in
the blue grass region of Kentucky, con-
ceived the ambition to establish a Short
horn herd on his farm in west Tennes-
see. At that time there ranged over
that farm. which was free range terri
tory. several hundred of the most extern
sively tick infested cattle that could be
found in the state of Tennessee. This
man knew that good cattle and ticks We're
Incompatible and he sought advice as to
the methods of getting rid of the former
which he succeeded in doing that year
by dipping the cattle and fencing off part
of the farm and freeing it of ticks by
the starvation method. The following
year he bought a herd of 105 pure-bred
Shorthorns and placed them on the farm
A number of slxeptics in that part of the
country informed the manager of the
farm of their unsuccessful efforts to grow
good cattle. Some attributed their fail
ure to bad. stagnant water others to
others blamed poisonous weeds. But
they knew, they said the tick had moth
ing to do with 1t. Now that herd of 105
Shorthorns has been in that county
three years, on the same farm and not
one animal has been sick from any dis
ease that could be associated with Texas
fever, and not one single tick has ever
been found on the plantation.
The herd that was brought there three
years ago was gathered from a number
of states in this country, from Canada
and from Scotland and England. Bulls
of the original herd were shown at a
number of the state fairs for the past
three years, but until this year none of
the members cs this herd were shown at
the International, for the reason that
the owner desired to demonstrate the abil-
ity of the south to produce prize win
ners. not to buy the melsewhere and
bring them in and then win prizes with
them. So this year several representa-
tives of the herd were SHOWN at the In
ternational. 1t naturally follows that
these were all young animals, and the
calf herd illustrated on this page was
awared first prize and the blue ribbon
in competition with the best herds of the
North American continent This herd
was shown at nine state fairs during 1913
and came off victorious in every event.
In the face of the evidence produced by
these two magnthcent herds of the types
Herefords and Shorthorns. can any per-
son harbor suspicion of a doubt of the
ability of the southern states to raise
high class beef cattle? And what is said
of the beef cattle is just as true of the
dairy cattle of equal prominence.
The owners of these two herds advise
the people of the south tnat the three re-
ouirements in their estimation. that are
foremost in the development of the cat
tie industry tick eradication first
pure bred bulls second, and the care of
the animal third-that is good feed in
sufficient quantity at all seasons of the
year.
Value Of Native Stock
The United States department of aeri-
culture does not expect that every farm
er in the south is going to raise a pure
bred herd. The department recommends