DAIRY MEICTIXG. 73 



Much of the breeding has been good, for we have many grade 

 herds that are averaging 250 to 300 pounds of fat per year. 

 Much of the breeding and handhng has been poor, for we have 

 lots of cows that do not pay back, for the food they eat, better 

 than did the old stock with which we started. 



Much of this grade breeding has been sensible, for the males 

 were selected because they were well bred and had individual 

 merit, and poor cows were rejected in the matings. Much of 

 it has not been sensible because breeders have been content to 

 use bulls just because they were pure-blooded, without much 

 reference to the producing abilities of their nearby female rela- 

 tives. 



Grade cows will continue to be. the dairy stock with which 

 we shall do business, because of their greater numbers and less 

 cost. In this breeding, the rigid culling out of poor cows must 

 be practiced and great care exercised in selecting the bulls to 

 mate with them. 



I doubt if since the English people set out to breed better beef 

 cattle and running horses, there has ever been a time, or coun- 

 try, where the people have studied the mysteries of animal 

 reproduction as have American breeders of American cattle 

 and trotting horses, in recent years, and yet, we have learned 

 no certain rules. We do not know how to breed cows that all 

 yield heavily of rich milk, nor horses that all have great speed 

 and endurance. Heifer calves are much more desirable than 

 bulls, on dairy farms, and yet, we have no rule by which we can 

 regulate sex at will. 



But we have gained much since the start. We have better 

 yielding cows and more of them, and faster moving horses and 

 more of them, and we know some of the reasons why they are 

 better. We have learned that the ability to yield, or perform, 

 i.s as transmissible from parent to offspring as is shape, size, 

 or color, if that ability is present in the animal by right of 

 inheritance. Unfortunately, not all good performing animals 

 have the ability to transmit their qualities, and so we have the 

 imcertainties. But it is commonly accepted knowledge, that 

 animals that are themselves good performers, and whose parents 

 and grandparents are good in the same respect, have the right. 



