28 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



Axs. I do not think so. I do not believe in crossing breeds. 

 The general rule in breeding seems to be that divergency leads 

 to further divergency. 



]Mr. Hitchcock : I would like to give an illustration. A 

 friend of mine went down to the New England fair at Worcester 

 to judge the dairy cattle. He tells me that he saw there in the 

 class of grades as fine, if not the finest, type of a dairy cow that 

 he ever saw, and that cow was bred from a pure bred Holstein 

 dam and a pure bred Jersey sire. But that cow had an own 

 sister that was absolutely worthless. I do not consider it safe to 

 cross the breeds. 



OuES. Is there any more danger of getting poor offspring 

 from a grade cow, provided she is a good type, than from a 

 thoroughbred ? 



Ans. I think there is, because the grade cow has not the 

 fixedness of type that the thoroughbred has. The thoroughbred 

 has been bred along a certain line for many generations, and has 

 her qualities pretty well fixed. The grade has been bred in a 

 mixed way and her qualities are not so firmly fixed, and you are 

 more likely to get variations. 



QuES. If 1 am choosing a male of the Jersey breed, how am 

 I am to be quite sure that it is of the dairy strain ? 



Ans. I think you can apply the same general rules that you 

 would apply to the female. You have to take into account some- 

 what the masculinity, which will give us some variation in the 

 coarseness of the type, but the same general rules should hold. 

 He should be somewhat wedge shaped, with not so large a 

 development of the barrel but still a considerable amount, and a 

 good width between the legs behind, which would show that the 

 animal came from a progenitor that had a large development of 

 the rear quarters and of the udder. You would look for the 

 same general outlines in the male as in the female, with the 

 exception, of course, of the peculiar organs possessed by each, 

 but above all study his dam and her records of production. 



QuES. How far do you think the score card can be used in 

 the selection of dairy animals ? 



Ans. The score card may be valuable in a general way, but 

 if you attempt to follow it strictly I do not regard it as of much 

 value. The score cards of a great many of the breeders' associa- 

 tions place comparatively little importance on a large develop- 



