14 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



acknowledged purity of blood, or well established studs, in every 

 individual branch or root of the family tree ; and this is what eve- 

 ry reliable breeder in the country expects and is as much prepared 

 to do as he is to furnish the animal which he has bred for sale. 



If a man buys an animal as pure bred, and does not require 

 therewith a written pedigree, full and complete, he must always be 

 in doubt about its purity of blood and breeding, and in selling 

 again, either the animal itself or its progeny, he must convey the 

 same doubt and thus leave a door always open to dishonest prac- 

 tice, at the same time lending to it the advantage his name may 

 give. 



Herd books of the short horns and Devons have now been so 

 loflg established that purchasers in either of these breeds may fair- 

 ly demand that their selections shall trace directly on both sides to 

 a record therein. And no breeder of live stock of any sort has a 

 right to sell as "pure blood" any animal of which he cannot fur- 

 nish a full and complete pedigree, tracing back in unbroken line to 

 well established herds of unquestionable character. Purchasers 

 should always demand this and failing to obtain it, ought, for 

 their own sake, and that of honest and unreliable dealers, to fore- 

 go the proposed purchase, however highly they may esteem the 

 selected animal ; for there are now throughout the country, honest 

 and careful men who are struggling on in the straight and narrow 

 way against a very unfair competition, and for their extreme care 

 and exactness in the observance of rules and unwillingness to ad- 

 mit any but most thoroughly bred stock in their hei-ds and flocks, 

 are constantly subjected to the slanderous abuse and would-be 

 witty flings of ignorant and unscrupulous dealers and breeders. I 

 have heard breeders insinuatingly remark up^Dn the herds of others 

 that they did not care to own cattle of such aristocratic blood as, 

 required a pedigree ; that they preferred good animals on their 

 own hoofs, to having them good on paper ; that they did not need 

 a written history to inform them about the purity of an animal's 

 blood, if they could but put their two eyes upon the animal, &c., 

 &c. ; and the reflection which I made was, that they were either 

 very ignorant, or that they believed their audience to be so, and 

 were themselves unscrupulous and unfair. Every purchase of an 

 assumed "pure bred" animal which has not a written proof of its 

 just claim to the title, is but an encouragement to the dishonest, 

 and one more obstacle in the way of the honest breeder. 



