86 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



You want to study a little scripture : take your Bibles and go 

 back to the book of Exodus, and read the pedigree of Moses. 

 He was an inbred man. 



Let me say, in the next place, to that farmer who wants to 

 build up a herd for production (and I suppose all farmers want 

 that here in Maine), I do not believe it necessary or wise for 

 you to think that you had better put in a herd of pure-bred 

 animals. I yield to no man in respect for pure breeding. I 

 repeat again that all the permanent advantage that we have, 

 has come from pure breeding, and I say then that the man who 

 is going to do that must do it by itself. That is not the business 

 of the dairyman who makes production his main aim. Now, 

 why? Because, simply that an animal has a registry, simply 

 that an animal is pure-blooded, does not prove that the animal 

 is all right. I believe in breeding in man and beast. I believe 

 in pedigree, but you know, gentlemen, that there are families 

 in every community whose very name is synonymous with hon- 

 esty, uprightness and integrity. You know there are other 

 families whose nam.e is synonymous with everything that is the 

 reverse. A young man that comes out of the first family will 

 go into life with a wonderful advantage over the other. I will 

 take his chance of success because he has a line of breeding of 

 the right kind behind him, and the other goes out handicapped ; 

 but, in spite of that, I leave it to you if there is not in these 

 families of admirable characteristics, every now and then, one 

 of whom it is charity to say that it would have been better for 

 him and for his friends if he had never been born. And if that 

 is true of the human race, how much more must it be true in 

 the brute creation? 



How are we working a dairy cow? We ask her to become 

 a mother at two years of age, and then we ask her to produce 

 a total weight of solids that is equal, at least, to two-thirds, 

 and more, of the weight of her body, and at the same time to 

 give us a calf at the end of the year that is healthy and strong. 

 Is there any other domestic animal that we are taxing to that 

 extent? To my mind, it means that unless we select and care 

 for her very carefully, we must have, even in the animals of 

 the best strain, those that are inferior, no matter how excellent 

 their breeding may be. 



So I say that the man who is going to breed pure-bred ani- 



