LiYe Stock*
SHORT-HOBNS.
The National Convention at Springfield, Illinois.
The late convention of the American
Association of Breeders of Short-horns,
held at Springfield; Illinois, was very
largely attended by representatives of
the States and Canada. We give a
synopsis of the proceedings of the
Association, embracing President Stevenson's address. Indiana breeders were
the chief movers in the organization of
this great enterprise, and it is a souroe
of gratification to them to see the association in such a flourishing condition. It will
be noticed that two of our enterprising
men carried off honors in the new board
of officers. We refer to Messrs. S. F.
Lockridge and Claude Matthews.
The convention was called to order by
the President, Dr. A. C. Stevenson, of
Greencastle, Indiana.
l S. F. Lockridge. of Greencastle, Ind.,
was chosen Temporary Secretary in the
absence of Mr. Campbell, of Batavia,
Secretary.
The President addressed the convention as follows, being listened to with
marked attention: ■
president's address.
Gentlemen of < the American Association
af Short-Horn Breeders:
The.location,of our last meeting was
thought to be very proper, on account of
its being upon the borders of the two
States of Ohio and -Kentucky, so long
distinguished for their herds of Short-
Horns and their very distinguished
breeders and importers.. ■ But we meet
to-day. by the kind, invitation of her
citizens, at a place and under circumstances none the less inspiring. Within
my recollection this beautiful country
was an uninhabited region—the home of
savage men and the grazing ground of
wild beasts. It is but fifty-six years
since this great and prosperous State of
Illinois was admitted into the Union of
States. She is now the fourth in size.
Forty years ago the highways leading
from Ohio and Kentucky might have
been seen moving westward, team after
team, loaded with the goods of the emigrant, with wife and "little ones," on
their way to the new State of Illinois.
They had heard of the beauty of her
prairies, ofthe matchless fertility of her
soil, and were on their way to take possession of more than the promised land
of the Israelites. A State of matchless
fertility. Fields by nature made ready
for the plow; unequaled fields of spontaneous grasses—54,400 square miles of
arable land, watered on the north by the
great lakes, her • western border in its
whole length by that father of waters the
great Mississippi, and on the south by
the Ohio. So goodly a land has rarely
been possessed.
After paying a glowing tribute to the
rapid and wonderful development of the
State of Illinois, he proceeded:
Food is the first demand of nature.
To supply a good, nutritious article is
the obiect of cattle raising. This great
interest of producing the best beef and
milk, butter and cheese, is the end in
view. Our objects are real and substantial. The rearing of Short-horns is not
fancy work, intended for show or a profitless display. No charlatan will find
this an agreeable association. And
should the work of charlatanism be
found developing itself among our
breeders, it will be sure to find an exposition here.
The great object that we propose, is to
i increase the quantity of beef and milk.
1st, by increasing the numbers of cattle,
and 2d, by increasing their size and
quality for beef and milk. The number
ofour cattle may be many times doubled
by occupying the limitless fields of
. prairie lying immediately west of us
reaching to the Pacific coast. A vast
amount of worn lands east and South
would be profitably changed from tillage to pasturagijwith great benefit to
the land and pro-it to the owneas.
The increase of our cattle is greatly
retarded by the annual slaughtering Of
cows and heifers, and should be discouraged. Upon the authority of the Patent
Office report, the number of calves
dropped to the first of June was one per
cent, above last year.
The quantity of beef may be greatly
increased by increasing the size of our
cattle. The substitution of Short-horns
would greatly increase the quantity by
increasing the size over those of common
or scrub cattle.
Two years ago I: purchased one hundred calves. They were of all grades,
from scrubs to high grades. At the
same time I had a few refuse thoroughbred calves that were not such as I
desired to keep as breeders, and consequently trained them and wintered them
with the lot that I purchased. They
were kept until a few weekssince (altogether.) when fifty-one choice  steers
S^t^Tv       -01
STATE NEWS.
Xj O TT I !S     T EC S     SECOND.
Sixteen hands high. Weight 1,600 pounds.
Was sired by Old Louis Napoleon, his dam teas ly the old imported Flanders.     "Louis the Second" is a noted premium
stallion and an extra breeder.     He was sold by E. Dillon & Co., in 1870, to Thomas Bowls, of Janesville, Wis.,
■'.....:   ,.. for two thousand dollars.     " Louis the Second"  was bred and raised by E. Dillon & Co.
were selected and sold, two thoroughbred Short-Horns included. The lot
averaged 1,370 pounds. The Short-
Horns were again weighed, to see how
they compared. One weighed 1,570 and
the other 1,600 pounds, or about 14 per
cent, more than the whole lot, including
themselves. One of the scrubs was
then reweighed, arid made 1,150 pounds,
or about 28 per cent, less than the Shorthorns. This lot were all three year old
steers, and had the same fare from
calves. I can make much better
showings than this from my own raising,
and also from that of others. This case
is referred to more on account of its late
occurrence than for anything very remarkable, yet sufficiently so to show the
superiority of Short-horns over common
cattle. But this is not quite all. The
purchase of these cattle, Mr. A. Y.
Bryan, place the value of the Shorthorns at $1 50 above the value of these
common steers, which, at least, would be
30 per cent. Now 30 per cent, in value
and 28 in size would make 58 per cent,
in favor of the Short-horns. This advantage is due entirely to the superiority of the Short-horns as a breed, their
keep being the#same from calves. And
this is not quite all, for a part of the
scrubs are yet unsold, not being fit for
market.  .        ■   ■        .
Of the milking qualities of Shorthorns, we may reasonably hope for a
good exposition by this Assoction.
The magnitude of the cattle interest
ofthe United States is quite large, with
a rapidly increasing consumption, the demand is likely to increase rapidly. No
flesh is so generally relished, as good
beef. No articles more in demand than
milk, butter and cheese. Of all the domestic animals, the cow is first. What
lady can feel at ease at the head of her
table, without a good plate of butter?
Milk is indispensable in childhood.
What a convenient luxury cheese is—always ready for the table without cooking? There is no waste in the bullock ;
we eat his flesh, and'luB hide protects us,
his horns make numerous ornamental
and useful articles, his bones are a good
substitute for ivory in various manufactures, his hair is indispensable in the
construction of buildings and finally his
refuse, whatever it may be, is used in I
fertilizing our soil.
We have no means of ascertaining the
number of Short-horns in the United
States or Canada, nor have we the means
of ascertaining the number of neat cattle
in Her Majesty's Dominion. The number of neat cattlo in the United 8tatesat
the last census was; beeves and store
cattle, 13,576,005; of milch cows. 8,935,-
338; of work oxen, 1,319.271. Of this
number, Texas is credited with the
largest number. 2.933,588, and Illinois
next, viz: 1,055,499. This number is
largely increased at this date.
We have no reliable means of ascertaining the number of beeves slaughtered annually. The number of beeves
and store cattle, which is 13,566,005, are
all slaughtered probably in four years,
which would be 3,391,338 annually. A
part ofthe store cattlo will doubtless be
added to the number of milch cows annually, but it is probable as manymilch
cows will be slaughtered, which will not
value of beeves per head in New York
in 1872 was estimated at about $75.
Now, to put the 3.391.338 at ten dollars
less, and we have for the yearly slaughter of beeves $220,437,970. Now we hold
that fifty per cent, may be added by the
substitution of Short-horns for the cattle
that are now sold as beeves, viz : $110,-
218.985. In other words, it would be
equal to adding half the number of cattle
to the amount now on hand.
Every farmer or cattle raiser who will
substitute Short-horns for the common
cattle, or even   high   grades, will   certainly realize fifty per cent, in value over
what  he   was  receiving   for  common
cattle, which is well worth the consideration of every farmer, and for the truth
of this statement we will refer him to
any shipper, feeder, or butcher.
* I may congratulate you, gentlemen, on
what you have accomplished,  and also
on the prospect of what  you   have   a
prospect of accomplishing in the future. I
Your annual reports have already greatly
awakened   public  attention.   This    is
manifest in the increased  demands  and
increased prices paid for Short-horns.
And the demand is still increasing,  and
should   continue until   our  23.820.608
cattleare all Short-Horns, or some other
breed equally good.
It is quite a large work to change our
present stock of cattle to high grades,
and this should be accomplished as
speedily as possible. The number of
milch cows being 8.935,332, and supposing them all common cattle, it would
require, at fifty cows to the bull, 178,-
706 Short-horn bulls to bring them up
to grades. From this it may be seen
that there is little danger of an over-
supply, shortly, of Short-horns,
Combined effort has ever been the
most successful mode of accomplishing
ends. We have the most flattering prospects of great good being accomplished
by this Association. The field before is
a large one. The breeding raising. Bummer and winter care of cattle—food, and
the best modes of preparation, etc.
These subjects, with many others, are
worthy the consideration of breeders
generally. You will pardon me, gentlemen, for detaining you so long, and I
conclude bv reminding you that the
country is looking to you for important
truths upon ihe subject of cattle-breeding knowing that this Association is
composed of the breeders, not only of
the United States, but also of many of
the most eminent breeders of Her Majesty's (Queen Victoria) dominions of
North America.
The following named gentlemen were,
On motion of Mr. Pickrell, appointed a
committee to secure statistics relative to
Short-Horn cattle:. Messrs. Pickrell,of
Illinois; Christie, of Canada; Groom,
of Kentucky; Dunn, of Ohio; and Cravens, of Indiana.
On motion of Mr. Duncan, the following committee was appointed to prepare
an address setting forth to breeders of
Short-Horn cattle the purposes of this
association, and urging them to become
members : Messrs. Duncan, of Illinois;
Sprague, of Iowa, and Cobb, of Illinois.
Dr. Sprague, of Des Moines, Iowa,
high-bred cattle, and how to prevent it,
a paper of marked physiological character.
Mr. W. S. Beattie, of Buffalo, New
York, read an interesting paper on the
color and breed of cattle, and containing
valuable stitistics to the breeder. He
held that there was no tenable prejudice
in favor of color, and showed that the
early Short-Horn was light, and the
best and largest number of the prize
takers were of this color. The largest
per ceat. of reds, the favorite color now
in America, of the original English
herds, was but 17 per cent, of the
whole.    I
i OFFICERS  ELECTED.
The election of officers for the ensuing
two years was declared to be in order,
Several candidates for President were
put in nomination, but the names of all
withdrawn except General Lippincott,
of Sangamon; J. H. Pickrell, of Macon,
and Hon. David- Christie, of Canada.
The ballot resulted—Pickrell, 49;
Christie, 18; Lippincott, 6; Scattering, 2.
Mr. J. H. Pickrell's election was made
unanimous, and he briefly thanked the
Convention for the honor conferred
upon him. '       '
Hon. David Christie, M. P. P., of
Ontario, Canada, and Hon. WTm. War-
field, of Kentucky, were unanimously
re-elected Vice Presidents.
For Secretary, S. F. Lockridge, of
Greencastle, Indiana,_and B. H. Campbell, of Bataria, Illinois, were put in
nomination, the ballot resulting in the
election of Mr. Lockridge.
Mr. Claude Mathews, of Indiana, was
elected Treasurer by acclamation.
The following gentlemen were elected
to compose the Board of Directors:
John B. Page, New York ; General De-
shea, Kentucky;_ T._ C. Jones, Ohio;
Prof. M. Miles, Michigan ; Hon. Stephen
White, Ontario, Canada; Hon. M. II.
Cochran, Quebec, Canada; Clinton Babbitt, Wisconsin; A. J. Dunlap, Illinois;
Dr. Geo. Sprague. Iowa; Jas. H. Kes-
singer, Missouri; M. S. Cockrell, Tennessee ; Cyrus Jones, California.
Quite a number of very interesting
papers were read on the various topics
connected with the Short-Horn interests, some of which we hope to be able
quote from in future numbers of the
Indiana Farmer.
The Executive Committee reported in
favor of holding the next Convention on
the first Wednesday in December, 1875,
at Toronto, Canada.
A Tippecanoe county man raised fourteen ears of corn from a single grain.    .
The fat hogs of Henry county have
about all been sold and slaughtered.
In parts of Benton county corn
yielded eighty bushels per acre. :
A twenty-four pound wild turkey was
killed near LaPorte the other day.
From two to four thousand bushels of
corn are marketed at Winchester daily.
Samuel. Bently, of Vermillion county,
lost some fine hogs a few days ago from
drinking brine. .    ■'   ;,   i> -
A farmer near Auburn claims a corn
crop, this season, of 120 bushels to the
acre.
The Franklin' court house was destroyed by fire last week, but the
records were all saved. '■
A car-load of supplies for the Nebraska sufferers is being raised in LaPorte. ..'..-' .
There were thirteen convictions out of
the 120 liquor cases on the docket at the
late term of Porter county court.
The Board of Commissionersof Floyd
county have under consideration plans
for a $30,000,poor house.
Seven thousand hogs have ^already
been slaughtered at Spencer, in Owen
county.
Mr. W. D. Kerr, of Fountain county,
has a farm from which he gets a valuable paint, resembling crude ochre.
The citizens of Union City have sent
a car load of prorisions and clothing to
the Nebraska sufferers.
Corn run up to sixty-eight cents per
bushel at Frankfort on Friday of last
week, on account of strong competition:
Thomps. Abrell, of Owen county, Bold
a lot of hogs, 1,281, which averaged over
215 pounds.
J. W. Archer, of Owen county, is feeding 200 turkeys for the holiday markets.
He feeds each separate in. small i^oops.
T. B. Smith, of Hamilton county, fed
seven hundred hogs this season on his
own corn. They averaged three hundred
pounds.
The Fowler, Benton county, Herald
say that W. S. Moffet, of Gilboa, recently sold a hog seventeen months old
that weighed 575 pounds.
Alfred Hall, of Miami county, on Saturday, sold a hog, of his own raising,
which weighed five hundred and forty
pounds.
Crawfordsville claims a population of
4,000. The petition for liquor license
in that city are to be vigorously contested:
S. V. Phares, of Tipton county, sold
twenty-one hogs which averaged three
hundred and seventeen^ pounds, part of
which were last spring pigs.
The Leas Brothers, at Waterloo, paid
out $42 5-14.58 for hogs during November. Other firms also were buying extensively in the county.
There has been no death in Mitchell
since the 14th day ,of September last, at
which time a colored child died. Where
is the town of 1,800 inhabitants that can
beat this health record?
John D. Smith, one of the oldest citizens of Tipton county, is still an aetive
energetic farmer. He is feeding a lot of
cattle this winter, .ind lias2 000 bushels of
corn,   Still on hand, the Tipton Times
Frank Sohwartz, a farmer Hying six
miles from Jeffersonville, isbeliovedto
have committed suicide by drowning
himself in Silver Creek. The creek was
being dragged for tho body, which had
not been found at last accounts. Schwartz
is said to have been overwhelmed with
trouble, and has made two previous
attempts to end his life.
i The Brookston, White county Ro-
porter says that Forgus & R. H. Alkire,
on the 7th, shipped from this placo to
Chicago nine head of Christmas cattle,
four years old, averaging 2,094 weight,
the best lot of cattle ever shipped from <
this point, and we challengo any other ,
place to beat them in every particular..
The Tipton Times tells us that Harry  .,
Woodruff has sold from his farm in tho ',
last   three   months   four   mules,_   two
horses,   eight head of cattlo,   thirteen
head of hogs, and nine turkeys, bringing
him in the aggregate sum of $1072.   He
still - has   eleven head of horses, forty
head   of  cattle, twenty-seven, head of
sheep, sixty head of hogs, and   twenty- '
six tnousaBd bushels of corn.        <   •
The Plymouth, Marshall county. Republican says that Mr. Charles Huff haa
raised upon   twenty-one acres of land, .•
seven hundred and   fifteen, bushels   of  i
wheat.   The ground was  cleared   four ■
years since.    The   same gentleman   has'
grown wheat for four successive years,
upon a field of sixteen acres, with   the  '
following results:   lst year, 352 bushels;
2d year, 378 bushels; 3d yoar, 418 bushels; 4th year, 426 bushels.. The . fifth
crop in the same field, looks promising.
The Winchester Journal tells the following Enoch Arden story on  a   small.,
scale:   "About twenty years ago a man
named James M. Thomas married the
eldest  daughter of Zimri  Moffitt, and
after living with her a few years,' during
which a daughter was born unto them,
deserted her.   For   years the   deserted
wife hesj'-d nothing of her truant lord,
but at. last came   the  apparently   well
authenticated  news that ho was  dead
and had been buried.   Shortly afU.r re-v
ceiving this news thc lady was* married
to Thomas Spencer, with whom she has
lived happily and by whom she has had
one   child... About   two weeks since  a
man called at their house in thc part of
town,   introduced himself as   the long-
lost husband, and  longed  to clasp  his
wife to his bosom , but sho preferred the
new love to the old, and wouldn't clasp
worth a cent.    The  consequence was   a
small-sized row, and the long-lost was
brought before Squire Reed und   fined
for an assault.   An   application   for divorce has been filed, which  will doubtless be granted, after which Spencer and
the lady will be legally married.
Important to
AU  Owners
Horns.
of Short-
The Peru Republican Says : We were
shown several ears_ of corn recently
raised by J. B. Muligam. which measured nearly fourteen inches in length
and the stalks on which they grew measured six inches at the fourth joint.
The Princeton Clarion says: Our
farmers are getting^ to be regular walking banks of deposit and exchange now-
a-days. Scarcely any who had hogs this
season, but sport a nice, fat roll of greenbacks of the larger denominations.
The Mitchell Commercial says: _ The
finest lot of hogs sold in the Cincinnati
market this season were shipped from
this county by Alfred Guthrie, of Tun-
nelton. The lot contained 300 head and
averaged 320 pounds. The price was
the best of the season, $8.
The National Association of Short-
Horn Breeders, which recently met at
Springfield, Illinois, having entrusted
Alex. Charles, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa,
with the work of procuring complete
statistics of all Short-Horns now living
in the United States and Canada, for
publication in the report of their proceedings, we would urge upon every ono
of our readers who are breeding Short-
Horns either upon a large or small scale,
to send in prompt and careful returns,
and those who have not received blanks
for that purpose, will be furnished them
free of charge promptly, on application
to Mr. Charles. Short-Horn men will
please give this tlieir very earliest attention, lor by so doing the forthcoming
report of tho American Association of
Breeders will be made the most valuable
and interesting publication ever issued
in this country.
The cotton product of 1874, as estimated by cotton growers in their returns
to the Department of Agriculture, somewhat exceeds three and a half millions
of bales. The yield per acre is reported
as less than in 1873. In most of the
States the weather for ripening and
gathering the top crop has been very
favorable. The reports arc nearly unanimous in stating that the proportion of
lint to seeds is largo.
Winter Mulching Pasture land with
Stable Hanure.
desirable to apply the
the   stables on land de-
materially affect our calculation.   The I read an essay upon the barrenness »f
The Barley Crop.
'   The San Francisco   Bulletin advises
the California farmers to   increase the
barley acreage, as it is a much more certain crop than wheat, especially in _ the
coast counties,  where . rust  sometimes
prevails.   Some years ago, in the absence
of a  foreign   demand,   the barley crop
quite overstocked the market, and some
time thereafter it was a neglected crop.
Now, however, the tables have  turned.
It is hardly probable that the crop for
some years to come will exceed the demand. Besides the foreign demand, there
is a large market for barley in the Eastern States.   There are some   fancy sorts
which bring large prices at present.
Geo. H. Thomas, of Homer, Rush
county, last week bought of Jas. Mustard, of this county, two fine Poland
China sows, for which he paid $60 each,
and of Messrs. Armstrong & Bro,, of
this county, three Poland China sows,
at $75 each. He has some full blood
English Berkshires also on hand.
The Vevay Reveille says: "Dnringthe
past week Mr. C. G. Boerner, of Vevay,
has examined pieces of meat from about
twenty-five hogs. Of this number he
has found four affected with trichinae.
Looking through his powerful microscope we saw a very fine specimen of the
worm—a hideous-looking monster of a
dark grey color, with rings of white, and
a snake-shaped head."
In case   it  is
manure   from
signed to be pastured the following
season, I have adopted a course which I
shall describe, with great satisfaction.
The annual weeds are many of them
earlier than the grasses, and if they are
allowed, by keeping off the stock until
a late turning out season, to grow and
set for seeding, and are then mown down
and are allowed to remain ou the ground
as mulch, the grass, though some of it
may have been cropped off in cutting the
weeds will outgrow the weeds, ana ita
frowth   being promoted   by the mulch
oth that applied from the stables and
that from the mown weeds, will develop
astonishingly, and the yield of  pasturage will  be very satisfactory.    Manure
applied in this way, on land to be mn.'^i,
tured a year or more before it is to\^J%
turned   in   will   be found vast!/ m>,rJ%
profitable than that turned hi the fW™-
spnng  after   it   has been   &w\h-4
Wilkinson, Cor. Md. Farmer.
**m