This steer can be produced more successfully from the dual purpose cow than any other. It has been said that we cannot grow our steers in the eastern half of Nebraska only at a loss, as the land is too high in price. We believe that they can be grown at the present price of feeders and land, and at a good profit; be grown largely at this season of the year upon what today is waste. There are thousands of acres of stalk-fields standing today that might have been utilized if they had been harvested in some way; a part put in silos, perhaps, which would have grown hundreds of steers through the winter. It would not only have grown them in a profitable way, but also is an assurance against the commonly known stalk-field disease. While at our home town of Fairfield, Neb., I recently saw at the freight house two men with three hides each that were taken from cattle lost in the stalk-fields. One of these men said this made nine head that he had lost. My son also related a loss of cattle by another party from whom he was buying some steers. The party in question lost three of the six head of steers which he was holding for the purpose of utilizing his stalk-field. In Clay county alone enough cattle have died this winter to build a good many silos and harvest a good many acres of corn. Further than this, cattle which are wintered in the stalk-fields often come through the winter in such bad shape that it takes half of the following summer to regain what they lost during the winter. The steer of today must be grown for the early market the same as the hog. He can no longer be kept until three or four years old. The grand champion steer at the International this year was a yearling as was also the case two years ago. Thus having spoken of the dual-purpose cow as to her practicability, we might say as to her conformation, that while she is not as slim through the neck and narrow through the front parts as the dairy cow, neither does she have the width of front and the thickness of the beef cow. She is reasonably smooth and bears ample evidence of being a good milker. The average dual-purpose cows of today as you find them scattered throughout the entire country, and upon the average farms, is the result of grades and cross-breeds only. It has been said that the dualpurpose cow cannot be bred with any degree of certainty. This we deny and if time would permit we could furnish abundance of evidence to the contrary. Of course, purity and certainty in their breeding can be established only by the same method used by the special dairy and beef breeds. We might call your attention to certain families of the Shorthorns as representatives of the dual-purpose animals, and while somewhat rough in their make-up as a rule they can be depended upon as milkers and reasonably good beef cattle. There is, however, but one breed which to our knowledge is almost universally a dual-purpose breed, this being the Red Polls, a cattle bred in their purity for over a century. So well are they established along pure-bred lines that should you cross them upon any breed of cattle regardless of horns or color, 90 per cent of the get from a Red Poll sire will be red and without horns. Two very desirable features along with milk and beef. This establishes the fact that the Red Polls are as intensely bred in their purity as any other beef or dairy breed. In our experience with these cattle, reaching over a period of some sixteen years in which we have been directly interested in buying and selling, during which time we raised between five and six hundred head, we have never had a cow in the herd but what was fairly good for milk, would at least raise her calf, and but few that were not good feeders. They are docile by nature and respond most readily to good feed and good care. Their milk is not only of good quality but the cows are persistent milkers. Ordinarily they are of good size, the males weighing around a ton and often larger. We weighed a two years and three months old male recently that weighed 1700 pounds. The cows vary in weight from 1,100 to 1,600 pounds. This wide margin in difference in weight in the cows is regulated for the most part by the breeders who own the herd, because if the cows are made to produce calves when too young, their growth is invariably checked. As to the individual record milk test of these cattle in this country, the most noted is that of the Pan-American Show at Buffalo, N. Y., where ten dairy breeds entered the test. This show being held in the densely populated districts of the East where dairying is the great specialty, an enthusiasm was manifest which resulted in one of the grandest shows of dairy cows ever brought together. The show consisted of five cows from each breed the test reaching over a period of six months time. During this time feed consumed by each cow, as well as the milk and the butterfat produced, was taken into consideration. The Red Polls in this test were all from one herd in charge of a man who never compounded a balanced ration for a cow, while the other breeds were cared for by men of experience and owned by men worth lots of money. In production of butter fat and churned butter, cost of feed considered and butter at 25 cents per pound, on a basis of 85 per cent butter-fat, the five cows in each breed stood as follows: Guernsey, Jersey, Ayshire, Holstein, Red Polls. In the ten dairy breeds, Red Polls stood fifth, beaten in production of churned butter for the entire six months by the Holsteins to the amount of $1.05. As an individual cow, however, the Red Poll cow, Mayflower 2d, stood second in net profit, having to her credit $52.10; the Guernsey, Mary Marshall, $59.41 the best Jersey, $50.24; the best Holstein, $49.43; the best Ayshire, $46.47, the best Shorthorn, $43.41; the best PolledJersey, $42.80; the best Brown Swiss, $41.23; the best French Canadian, $40.63. The best Dutch Belted, $39.02. We do not look upon such tests as showing the real value of breeds, yet they are indicators, even though the phenomenal animals which show up in every breed are the ones taken into consideration while the aver age of the entire herd or breed is stili a matter of guess. Therefore, we We do think a more practical test would be that of the entire herds. not have many large herd tests as yet in this country but in England a great many. In 1909 the Jean Duluth farm, of Duluth, Minn., made a test of their entire herd of cows and heifers the sixteen cows showing an average per cow of 5,786 pounds of milk, and 257.84 pounds of butter-fat Six heifers showed an average of 5,567 pounds of milk and 243.04 pounds of butter-fat. In the herd of Mr. Garrett Taylor, of England, a test of five years, where the entire herd numbered from eighty-five to ninety-eight head, the average annual yield of milk per cow was from 5,116 to 5,877 pounds; the average fat was from 3.75 to 4 per cent. In Mr. A. J. Smith's herd twenty-two head gave an average of 6,374 pounds. The herd of Lord Rothchilds, of Tring-Park, that were selected with the view to milk, thirtyseven cows gave an average of 6,937 pounds and a year later twenty-two head gave an average of 7,744 pounds. In 1896 the cows from twelve herds numbering 253 head gave an average of 5,786.49 pounds. The above citations are pretty conclusive evidence of the dairy qualities of the Red Polls. It is likely from our drier climate that production of milk here is not quite so great as in England. but the quality is believed to be enough better to balance. In 1902 the International added a new class to their premium list called, "The Farmers' Cow Class." Good money prizes were offered and the consideration in this class were individual merit, 25 per cent butter record of each cow during the period of lactation, 35 per cent and the calf she produced, 40 per cent. Four Red Polled breeders from Wisconsin and Ohio made entries. The Iowa Agricultural College made one entry of a Shorthorn cow. The result was that even showing against a public institution, with Professor Carlisle, of Wisconsin College and Professor Day of the Ontario Agricultural College, as judges, a Red Polled cow won first and the Shorthorn second. First in yield of butter for 330 days was 337.8 pounds; the second in 333 days was 315.1 pounds. As an individual the Shorthorn cow had the advantage of 6 per cent in the calf produced, the Red Poll cow an advantage of 8 per cent. The next year there were only Red Polls entered and after that for want of competition, the Farmers' Cow Class was abandoned. The Red Polled cattle club now have a standing offer of $500 to reinstate this class, providing any other breed will put a like sum. These cattle have also been making a very creditable showing in the carcass contest each year. While on root they have not been fed to the ripe finish the other breeds have, this has been the fault of the exhibitor and not the cattle. I know that they do finish nicely both steers and heifers. A two-year-old barren heifer shown by us at the International in 1906 won second in the steer class of the Red Polls where she had to be shown on foot. Her live weight was 1,125 pounds and dressed weight 760 pounds, showing a per cent yield in dressed weight of 67.5 per cent, while the best carcass in the show was an Angus steer showing a dressed weight yield of 69.5 per cent, making only a net dressed weight of 2 per cent in his favor. Her carcass sold at a good figure to a Chicago butcher, for Christmas beef. I will just say she dressed more than the Red Poll steer that stood above her on foot by 1 per cent and sold for two cents more per pound. He was fed on milk and the flesh was soft, would not harden in the cooler. She was fed equal parts cob-meal, oats and bran and alfalfa hay. We find the Red Polls each year about fourth or fifth in the carcass contest. In 1907 a two-year-old Red Polled steer was third in point of yield dressed weight. We do not claim for them that they are the best for either beef or milk, but have only given these records of test to show that they can be depended upon to a marked degree of certainty as a dual-purpose cattle. We also claim as set forth above that there is a profitable place for them on Nebraska farms and no cattle will more readily respond to good care and good feed than will the Red Polls. While this is true, we are also, as I have previously stated, proud of the excellent beef and dairy herds of our state, and especially proud of the dairy records made on this experiment farm, which are almost. if not quite, unsurpassed. We are pleased with the splendid record the beef breeds have made at the International from year to year, the greatest show in the United States if not in the world. I am as well, very, very proud of the dual-purpose Red Polled cow kept upon this farm, as she furnished the milk that helped make it possible for the Angus bullock to win first and championship of his breed at the late International. In conclusion will say that Nebraska farmers are growing quite strong in the belief And against such a job the hired man does kick. But he'll stick with the job when you show him just how He'll be pleased, you can bet, when he sees what a mere When the calves are through nursing, how quickly they're off At a self-feeder of cob-meal, ground alfalfa and oats For yourself and hired man when the calves 're a year old.. At our place last summer I wish you'd have seen There were five left to milk, they to fill the big can, I must now bid adieu, but my favorite farm scene Is a herd of Red Polls browsing 'round on the green. MAKING ADVERTISING PAY A BREEDER. A. CHRISTIAN, ADVERTISER FOR CHRISTIAN CLOVER LEAF BREEDING FARMS NEAR YORK, NEBR. Advertising must tell something which the man who reads it can use to his advantage, and he must be made to see it is to his advantage. If we had not advertised the Christian Clover Leaf Breeding Farms we know it to be a fact very little would be known about the herds of purebred Angus and Polland-Chinas outside of York county. It is an old saying that "the only institution that does not have to advertise is the United States. mint." The mint has a monopoly manufacturing a necessity. Creative advertising is a necessity, because the demand exists, and in this day and commercial age it is absolutely necessary for the progressive breeder to advertise. Breeding of stock affords opportunities for productive advertising, equal of that of the average commercial commodity, and there is no better means of attracting attention than through the advertising columns of farm and stock publications whose subscriber-readers are farmers, stockmen and breeders. It is a well known fact that in times of depression that the best advertised breeders suffer the least, and statistics will prove that the progressive successful advertiser of pure-bred stock is the breeder who not only produces the best, but if a good advertiser, no matter what conditions may prevail, he is not discouraged but keeps up the good work. Good breeders are benefactors and by advertising they encourage and educate farmers to breed a most perfect profitable type of cattle and hogs. A breeder selling an ideal, perfect, popular type at a fair reasonable price creates an interest in every locality he ships for the general improvment of stock. In advertising our stock we attempt to have the public understand and appreciate the results of years of experience of care and proper mating of different types to secure a most perfect money-making type, guaranteeing every statement made, and describing no animal or make any statements but what when the animal arrives the purchaser in every way is well pleased. It is a very easy matter for a breeder to assert that he has the best there is, but when he makes a sale he must deliver the goods. We believe in not only guaranteeing every animal we sell to be a breeder, but we offer to pay return charges, no matter whether shipped 50 or 500 miles, and return purchase price,, and no questions asked if the animal is not just as described. . We find that the best and most convincing arguments we can use in assisting to make sales is to enclose in our letters fac-simile letters received from our satisfied customers, to enclose newspaper clippings telling |