The Inter-State Short-horn Breeders’ Association held a meeting at Kansas City last week to adopt rules to govern the sales of breeding Short-horns at the next Fat Stock Show in that city. After considerable discussion it was resolved that the pedigrees be submitted and cattle ready for examination on or before the first day of June, and that the committee be requested to visit and inspect, some time in June, the cattle offered for the sale. The executive committee was given plenary powers in regard to deciding what animals are to be admitted in the sale, and authorized to have the catalogues compiled and published. So far over one hundred head have been entered for sale.
The stockmen of Rush county, Kan., have organized an association to be known as the Rush County Stockmen’s Union, and adopted a constitution. The objects of the association are set forth in the following _therefore_ of the preamble to the constitution: “In order to protect ourselves from persecution and to secure for ourselves all possible legitimate advantages, and in all proper ways to promote the interests of those in our country engaged in the production of any kind of live stock, we, a number of the stock growers of Rush county, have formed an organization known as the Rush County Stockmen’s Union.” It is said there exists in Rush county an element of society which is violently antagonistic to the stock interests.
While at Elgin last week we accompanied Dr. Pratt to his home to take a look at his herd of Holstein cattle. The sight of the long rows of stalls filled with this young breeding milk stock was a surprise. Counting a new arrival of twenty-five during our visit the Doctor now has about 130 head—certainly one of the largest as it is one of the best herds of Holsteins in the country. The Doctor breeds and buys to sell again, and his trade is large, as he does not demand fancy prices but simply a fair return for his investment, care and labor. The famous bull Cyclone heads the home herd. The females are generally from a year and a half to three years old. Duchess of York is his brag cow, though he has other strains nearly as famous for milk. The young bull, Berkhout, a prize winner in Holland, is a capital animal. Though a dull season of the year shipments from this herd are numerous. A bull and three heifers go the present week to J. J. Conklin, Valley Creek, Texas. H. H. Bissell, Navasota, Texas, takes a bull and two females. The promising bull Duke, of Oak Hill, goes to A. H. Woodruff, Lansing, Iowa. Mr. W. also takes a yearling heifer. The Duke weighs 1,650 pounds, and was but two years old the 17th of June last. The Doctor reports the demand from the South as wonderfully increasing. In 1883 he had orders from Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, Kentucky and Tennessee. He will stock his ranch in Kansas this spring and summer with a view to supplying the West and Southwest with grades and full bloods.