DAIRY MEETING, ']'J 



they have become known and distinguished by their breed 

 names. This excellence in the various lines has been attained 

 only by careful selection on the part of the breeders ; and doubt- 

 less unwise selections at times have prevented the breeds from 

 reaching that degree of perfection to which they might other- 

 wise have attained. 



The breeds have been formed and are at our command. It 

 is our duty to carry on the improvement and to use them in such 

 a way as to improve and grade up our common herds. The 

 improvement is needed not only in production, but in form, 

 constitution, and in reproduction. While the production end 

 is the all important one from the financial point, the fact must 

 not be lost sight of that the stamina of the animal and its powers 

 to reproduce are just as important and if they are neglected bad 

 results will follow. 



It would not be possible to dispose of all the low producing 

 cows or even a large portion of them without disturbing the 

 supply of dairy products which is too low as it is. They can 

 be gradually replaced with higher producers with a continuous 

 grading up by the use of pure bred sires. The scales and Bab- 

 cock test should play an important part in this work by pointing 

 out to the breeder his best producers. Having found his highest 

 producers and knowing the individual characteristics of each 

 animal he should be able to select those animals which he desires 

 to be the mothers of his herd. 



After the cows are selected fully as important a part is the 

 selection of the head of the herd. The old saying that "The bull 

 is half the herd" was never truer than it is today. With the 

 dams and sire equally as well bred, this saying is true. But 

 where the dams are of mixed breeding and the sire is pure-bred, 

 he is much more than half the herd. The dams with their 

 mixed breeding may be good producers because they are the 

 selected ones from a mass. They have many types among their 

 ancestors and very few of these types agree. The lines are 

 weak and are not easily transmitted to the offspring. Those 

 characteristics that are inherited by the offspring are as likely 

 to be the undesirable as the desirable. The sire's ancestors have 

 been of one general type, the blood lines are strong and are 

 transmitted to the progeny. This is called breed prepotency 



