DAIRY AND SEED IMPROVEMENT MEETINGS. 223 



doxical. For example, it has been conclusively proved that an 

 animal may be highly inbred without the sire and the dam 

 being in any way whatsoever related to each other. This means 

 that in such strongly line-bred animals as dairy cattle it may 

 often happen that after making what the breeder supposed to 

 be a distinct outcross the progeny will still be to a very con- 

 siderable extent inbred. 



The work on inbreeding in Jerseys and Holsteins has pro- 

 gressed to the point where the pedigree work is completed. The 

 further analysis of the pedigrees has, however, been held up 

 since last summer owing to lack of clerical help. We hope to 

 be able shortly to take up this work again and push it forward 

 to completion. In connection with this work it is very gratifying 

 to report that the ]\Iaine Agricultural Experiment Station re- 

 ceived as a gift from the Royal Jersey Agricultural Society 

 during the past year a complete set of the Jersey Island Herd 

 Books from the beginning. This set is almost certainly the only 

 complete set of the Island Herd Books in the State of Maine 

 and one of only a few sets in the United States. This means 

 that any Maine breeder of Jersey cattle can at the Experiment 

 Station look up the complete pedigree, so far as it exists, of any 

 imported Jersey cattle. 



3. COOPERATIVE CATTLE BREEDING RECORD EXPERIMENT. 



During the past year there has been put into operation on an 

 extensive scale a cooperative breeding record project in which 

 something over 200 breeders of cattle in Maine and a number 

 in other parts of the world are engaged. The purposes of this 

 experiment are to gain accurate statistical data upon a number 

 of obscure problems in the physiology of breeding and in regard 

 to the determination of sex. It is at this time too early to go 

 in detail into the question of the problems which are to be 

 answered by the results obtained in this cooperative investiga- 

 tion. Some idea of these may be obtained from the blanks used 

 which are reproduced below. 



