1906.] DISCUSSION. 179 



ways be variations. That never has been done since the world 

 began. Whether it ever will be, I do not know. 



Question. I would like to ask the speaker if the progeny 

 get their milk-producing power from the sire? Is that gener- 

 ally an acknowledged fact ? 



Prof. Shaw. I do not know whether you all heard that 

 question. The gentleman asks the question whether the milk- 

 ing qualities are inherited from the sire or are they partly in- 

 herited from the sire and partly from the dam? I can answer 

 that only in this way : that prepotence is always inherited from 

 the animal that is the more prepotent. Whichever one is the 

 more prepotent, the inheritance will be from that end. It is 

 usually from the sire, because the sire is most always the more 

 prepotent, but I would say right here that I am a beHever in the 

 fact that a male as such transmits such properties to the female. 

 The female also transmits certain properties. 



A Member. A man must use his eyes in breeding cattle. 

 I have had considerable experience in breeding. I bred for sev- 

 eral years from graded bulls, and afterwards used a thorough- 

 bred bull, which was not registered, and which was supposed 

 to be selected with great care. It came from some of the most 

 fashionable stock in the State of Wisconsin, but that bull 

 proved worthless to breed from. He was a thoroughbred 

 bull, but simply because he was not registered, did not have 

 the standing of thoroughbred registered stock. Every farmer 

 that wants to spend his money for a thoroughbred sire has got 

 to choose wisely, or he is going to lose. 



Prof. Shaw. That is a very good point. 



A Member. Can that be stated again? We did not hear 

 that question back here. 



Prof. Shaw. The substance of the statement of the gentle- 

 man is that a graded sire had been used, and afterwards un- 

 registered sires chosen with very great care, and the results 

 from the former were better than the results from the latter. 

 I can readily understand how that would be possible, because 



