206 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



a young sire keejj down the average of the two parents, if tliey would 

 see their hopes realized. 



The process of improving the herd is necessarily a slow one, but 

 ID no other way can it be so cheaply and quickly brought about as by 

 the use of a bull of marked excellence both in breeding and in in- 

 dividuality. Of course, it is desirable to have females of the best 

 dairy type and capacity to mate with one's bull, but this is not al- 

 ways feasible. For those who having a bull possessed of the need- 

 ful qualities, are compelled through limited means to be content 

 with foundation cows of only medium excellence, there is much en 

 couragement in the facts disclosed by the record of the thirty-fifth 

 leading dairj bulls as given in the published records of the American 

 JeTsey Cattle Club. Taking the highest tested daughter of each of 

 these bulls, I find that more than one-half of them are from untested 

 dams. 



Although a subject over which many a hard fought battle has been 

 waged, I think it due that we should give our attention for a few 

 minutes to the subject of inbreeding. First of all, it will not be dis- 

 puted, I think, that in order to justify close inbreeding there should 

 be present in the animals certain vei'y valuable qualities which are 

 worthj^ of being intensified. It should be borne in mind that inbreed- 

 ing accentuates bad points, if there are any, as well as good ones. 

 We may note, however, in passing, that breeding together any two 

 animals having a common w'eakness, whether those animals be re- 

 lated or not, will tend to increase that w^eakness. It is because 

 animals of similar blood lines are more likely to be similarily af- 

 fected that those who practice inbreeding need to be ever on their 

 guard. Furthermore, among the great number w^ho have tried close 

 inbreeding, only a few great geniuses have made a pronounced suc- 

 cess. Even these geniuses have recognized in the course of time 

 the necessity for an outcross in order to maintain the fertility and 

 capacity of their animals. Two families of Jerseys, once famous 

 but that one no longer hears much about, tlie Alpheas and St. Heliera 

 were closely inbred. The firm of Miller & Sibley once owned two St. 

 Helier bulls that were inbred for many generations to St. Helier 

 forty-five. One of them. Vicar of Wakefield, had 87^ per cent, of his 

 blood and the other. King St. Helier, 78^ per cent, and the latter bull 

 traced fourteen times to St. Helier forty-five within six generations. 

 While there is no doubt that there was great butter capacity in the 

 early generations of the descendants of St. Helier forty-five, yet both 

 of these bulls possessing such a large per cent, of his blood were com- 

 plete failures as sires. Neither of them has a standard test daughter, 

 and King of St. Helier, though bought by us when a calf and given 

 every advantage, never sired over half a dozen calves that had vitality 

 enough to carry them to maturity, to say nothing about the ques- 

 tion of superiority. 



