DAIRY AND SEED IMPROVEMENT MEETINGS. 205 



2. The Study of inbreeding in dairy cattle. Attention has 

 been concentrated on this phase of the investigation during 

 the past summer and fall. Extensive data have been accumu- 

 lated regarding inbreeding in Jerseys and a new method >f 

 measuring the degree of inbreeding in a particular case has 

 been worked out and the results published in Bulletins 215 and 

 218 of the Experiment Station. A further bulletin giving the 

 results of applying this method of measuring inbreeding to 

 the Jersey breed will, it is hoped, appear some time during the 

 next calendar year. 



3. The inheritance of characters other than milk production 

 in cattle. Investigations along this line are being carried on in 

 the hope that by the study of other characters, which are more 

 easily recorded and observed than milk production, light may be 

 thrown on the method of inheritance of milk production itself. 

 Whether or not this proves to be the case, it is certain thrjt 

 investigations along this line will broaden and deepen our 

 knowledge of the fundamental laws of inheritance in cattle, and 

 while it may not be apparent what the usefulness of such 

 knowledge will be, past experience plainly indicates that there 

 has never been a time when real knowledge of fundamental 

 natural processes did not in the long run prove of practical 

 value. 



4. The inheritance of milk and butter fat producing ability. 

 Work on this, the main phase of the whole project, is being 

 conducted along two general lines. The first of these is the 

 analysis of existing records in the advanced registries of the 

 Jersey and Holstein breeds. The second is the carrying on of 

 actual breeding experiments with the University of Maine 

 herd. Owing to a complication of circumstances that need not 

 be here discussed, there has been some difficulty in getting 

 these experiments properly under way. It is, on this account, 

 a great satisfaction to the committee to be able to report at 

 this time that they are now moving forward satisfactorily. The 

 University of Maine has made provision for the purchase of a 

 small herd of registered Hereford animals, which will be used 

 in the cross-breeding experiments to test out, by Mendelian 

 methods, the way in which milk and butter fat production are 

 inherited when a high producing and a low producing breed 



