DAIRY MEETING. 8l 



"Animal Breeding in Europe" in the second volume of the 

 American Breeders' Report, he says, "Many of the most careful 

 men, rather than to use a young sire, no matter how good the 

 individual, or how fancy his breeding may be, prefer letting him 

 to some other breeder for a couple of years or until they are 

 sure of his stock, or to retain him in their own herd or flock, 

 and use him on a few females until he has proven himself 

 worthy of a place at the head of the breeding herd or flock. 

 By the adoption of this method much time is saved and no small 

 amount of disappointment is avoided." If more of our young 

 bulls were first tried on dams whose powers of breeding were 

 known, there would be fewer disappointments. 



The reason that many sires are sent to the butcher while 

 young is probably to avoid in-breeding. The extent to which 

 in-breeding can be carried with safety is always an open ques- 

 tion. We can say that scarcely a breed has been formed but 

 that somewhere in its history in-breeding has been practiced to 

 fix and intensify the type. The need at present is not as great 

 as formerly, but undoubtedly there are instances when it can be 

 used to advantage in fixing some desirable characteristics. It 

 is not to be recommended in general as it must be remembered 

 that the undesirable as well as the desirable characters are inten- 

 sified, and it is only the careful observer that will know when 

 it can be applied. The fact that it is said to weaken the consti- 

 tution of the animal is quite true in many cases from the fact 

 that animals naturally weak are often used for the in-breeding, 

 and this being an undesirable character is intensified and fixed 

 with the rest of them. If in-breeding is to be practiced it would 

 be better to use only a part of the herd, then if the results are 

 not what are looked for, the rest of the herd is intact to carry 

 on the former line of breeding. The breeding herd is a swift 

 moving tide of life and the character of the entire herd will 

 change in five years, although individuals live for years. If 

 one entire season is a failure it leaves a gap which is hard to 

 fill. 



The question will probably be asked : What is to be done, 



if in-breeding is not recommended and sires that have proved 



worthy of keeping, if kept must be used to inbreed? There 



seems to be one solution of this; one that is used in other 



6 



