72 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



anterior parts of the new-born creature have been claimed as 

 the contributions of parents of one sex and its posterior parts 

 as the contributions of the other sex. The external form and 

 markings of the young animal have been believed by some 

 people to be usually like those of the sire, while its interior 

 organs were expected to correspond to those of its dam. The 

 function, disposition, and sex of the creature have been claimed 

 as coming, regularly, from the male or female parent. 



All of these theories and claims have been proved true when 

 the data was secured by the observation of certain animals, and 

 they have all been proven untrue, as laws in breeding, whenever 

 the evidence has been collected from a field sufficiently broad 

 to be reliable. So far as we have gone in the study of breed- 

 ing, no man has yet solved nature's mysteries sufficient!}- to 

 enable him to mould animals with that degree of accuracy that 

 the potter moulds clay. 



In discussing the subject which has been assigned me — The 

 Head of the Dairy Herd — I have no right or disposition to 

 claim for him greater influence upon the calves of his get than 

 can be accredited to the cows with which he is mate.d, provided 

 they are of equally good breeding and individuality. 



Concede that the moulding influences of the male are equal 

 with those of the female, and his importance becomes increased 

 many fold, in herds, where he is mated with many females and 

 contributes his half of form and function to all the new-born 

 oflFspring of the herd. Surely, in this sense, it is evident that 

 *'the bull is half the herd." How important, then, that he be 

 at least as well bred as every cow in the herd, so that he have 

 as good, or better right, to claim his half, or more, in the makeup 

 of every calf. 



Every one who is at all familiar with the changes that have 

 taken place in New England cattle during the last forty or fifty 

 years knows that the changes are the results of mating bulls 

 of the dairy breeds with cows of the old stock, and continuing 

 the mating of pure-bred bulls with the grade heifers of the suc- 

 ceeding generations, down to the present time. These grade 

 cows are the basis on which New England dairying rests today. 

 As a whole, the stock is much better adapted to the special pur- 

 pose for which we are using it, than it was when we began. 



