I/O BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



What may be termed promiscuous breeding is the style of 

 breeding most commonly practiced. The average farmer 

 chooses a sire from a certain breed, it may be on the ground 

 of convenience or because the breed for the time being is popu- 

 lar. Soon another breed becomes popular, and a sire is chosen 

 from that breed. It may be that in a lifetime sires have been 

 used from half a dozen breeds. 



Now see what this means. Suppose, for instance, a pure 

 Jersey sire is mated with a grade female of breeding that is 

 much mixed, far more than fifty per cent, of properties in the 

 progeny will be inherited from the Jersey. Suppose that now 

 a pure Holstein sire is used in mating with the females thus 

 begotten, the progeny will possess more than fifty per cent, of 

 Holstein properties, but the Jersey properties will be propor- 

 tionately eliminated. Suppose again that pure Shorthorn sires 

 are chosen to mate with the grade Holstein females, then more 

 than fifty per cent, of the properties will be Shorthorn, the 

 Holstein properties will be proportionately reduced' and the 

 Jersey properties will be still further eliminated. Those who 

 breed thus are like the man who, as. often as he walks up the 

 hill, walks down again, or like him who sails continuously in a 

 circle. At the end of a lifetime of such breeding, the breeder 

 will find himself just where he was when he started. 



Upgrading is the true system of improving live stock. 

 Cross-breeding, that is, the mating of two distinct breeds, should 

 have but little place in the operations of the farmer. It may 

 be advantageous in some instances, as when the dams and their 

 progeny are to go to the block. It may be profitable, for in- 

 stance, to cross aged Merino ewes with males of some better 

 mutton breed, and to prepare both for the market by fatten- 

 ing them on rich pastures, but ordinarily such crossing should 

 stop with the first cross. To carry it further would, probably, 

 for a time at least, introduce elements of reversion. 



But, it may be asked, are there no instances in which alien 

 blood may be introduced with animals that have been up- 

 graded? There are such instances, as when the animal thus 

 graded have partially lost some useful property or prop- 

 erties. It is possible to restore those properties or at least to 

 improve them greatly in some instances by the introduction of 

 an outcross, that is, by making one cross from sires of another 

 breed. 



