1906.] BREEDING ANIMALS ON THE FARM. 167 



comprehensiveness, the extent to which various desired quali- 

 ties are present. 



By upgrading is meant the improvement of common stocks 

 through the use of successive sires chosen from one and the 

 same pure breed. For instance, when common females, it may 

 be of mixed breeding-, are mated with a pure bred Holstein 

 sire, and when the female progeny continue to be thus mated 

 in succeeding generations, the produce are termed grade Hol- 

 steins, and when this line of breeding is continued for several 

 generations they are termed high-grade Holsteins. When good 

 and prepotent sires are chosen, it is, in a sense, wonderful how 

 quickly common stocks w^ill be improved, providing the food 

 given is suitable, and the care of the animals is proper. 



When the process begins, mixed blood elements in the fe- 

 males is no detriment. It does not stand in the way of quick 

 improvement. In fact, the reverse may be true, since every ad- 

 ditional blood element lessens prepotency in the female. In 

 other words, the less purely bred she is, the less the power that 

 she will have to transmit her own properties. Consequently, 

 when mated with a purely bred prepotent sire, the preponder- 

 ance of resemblance in the progeny is to the sire. The prepond- 

 erance in all essential properties will come from him also, and in 

 both instances because of his superior prepotency. 



Analyze . further this upgrading process. Suppose the 

 foundation female is a ewe secured from the range and that 

 she is possessed of the blood elements of a dozen different 

 breeds. She is mated with a prepotent Southdown male. Let 

 the difference in blood elements or properties between the 

 two at the outset be represented by one hundred. The first 

 thought would be that fifty per cent, of the properties or ele- 

 ments in the progeny would be inherited from the dam and the 

 same from the sire. That is not true. More than fifty per 

 cent, of those properties come from the sire, as many more 

 as the prepotency of the sire, in virtue of his purity of breed- 

 ing, exceeds that of the dam. Less than fifty per cent, of those 

 properties come from the dam, as many less as her prepotency 

 or power to transmit her properties is less than that of the sire, 

 as a result of her mixed breeding. The preponderance ir. prop- 

 erties in the progeny inherited from the sire will exceed those 

 inherited from the dam, as much as the power of the sire to 

 transmit his own properties because of his strong prepotency, 



