1906.] BREEDING ANIMALS ON THE FARM, 169 



slower, while such sires were used, the level of improvement 

 reached would never equal that made in the former instance, 

 and improvement would be made very much more slowly. The 

 advantage, therefore, and profit, from using only pure bred 

 sires is clearly apparent when these can be secured without 

 excessive cost. 



Suppose again, that the Southdown sires had been inferior, 

 individually, though purely bred, what would have happened? 

 Why, because of their prepotency the result of the purity of 

 their breeding, they would sustain their own individual su- 

 periority in the progeny. This might not have followed in 

 some instances because of the influence of atavic transmission, 

 resulting in bequeathing properties to the progeny possessed 

 by superior ancestors. As a rule, however, the transmission 

 would more or less resemble the inferiority possessed by the 

 sire. The breeders of grades are usually content with a very 

 common or inferior pure bred, because of the cheaper cost, 

 but to invest in such is clearly a mistake. The place for all these 

 inferior sires is the block in the case of meat-making animals, 

 and in the dray or van in the case of horses. The breeder who 

 chooses sires thus, makes a grievous mistake. An inferior sire 

 is dear at any price. He is dear as a gift. The extent to which 

 such sires have been used by the breeders of grades has greatly 

 retarded live stock improvement. 



The view so widely held that while the progeny of the first 

 mating are a great improvement on the females from which 

 they are bred, the progeny of the second mating and also of suc- 

 ceeding generations, is likely to be inferior, is a fallacy. In up- 

 grading, such a result would be clearly impossible. The im- 

 provement will be continuous until the level of the breed is 

 reached from which the sires are chosen. It is in cross-breed- 

 ing that such results sometimes follow, that is, when sire and 

 dam are mated each strong in the blood elements of a differ- 

 ent pure breed. In such instances, usually but not always, the 

 progeny is at least the equal of the sire or dam in useful prop- 

 erties, but not in prepotency. The improvement is probably 

 the result of the renovating influence that would seem to inhere 

 more or less in introduced alien blood. In succeeding genera- 

 tions, however, there may be a tendency to revert to one or the 

 other of the two breeds thus mated, thus leading to uncertainty 

 in the results and sometimes to retrogression. 



