No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 221 



Referring to our third proposition, the closeness of blood relation- 

 ship in the parents, you may say that means in-breeding. I have 

 distributed a sheet on which are printed two pedigrees; the first one^ 

 the pedigree of the Fifth Prince of Orange, a Holstein animal that 

 was owned for a time by T. C. Maxwell, of Geneva, N. Y., that was 

 produced from the attempt to breed without in-breeding with a lim- 

 ited number of animals in the herd. Of course the pedigree does not 

 show it, and I will ask you to take my word for this that the ances- 

 tor of the Fifth Prince of Orange, as shown on the paper, showed a* 

 great variety of animals as to form, color, size and beef production. 

 Some of them were very good beef animals. Some of them fattened 

 very much more readily than others; some were goof" milkers and 

 riome were not. Some were large and some small, showing a great 

 variety, consequently in the Fifth Prince of Orange we got a mix- 

 ture of no particular thing. He was not a noted animal as a sire. 

 He did not transmit his own characteristics with the certainty es- 

 sential to a very valuable animal. I know there are some Holsteia 

 oreeders in the audience and perhaps there are some present who 

 know of this animal. I must say, in passing from this to take up 

 the next, that this breeding was done by the Oneida Community. I 

 do not know that you ought to expect anything else from such a 

 source. 



• I call your attention to the next or second pedigree, that of Polo- 

 nius, and represents in the five generations the blood of but two ani- 

 mals, and this shows you the line of transmission which was in a 

 large degree the foundation of the St. Lambert family, and in this 

 animal was secured, and fortunately without any deterioration due 

 to in-breeding, an animal that transmitted his own characteristics 

 with great certainty, and it was just what we would expect from this 

 kind of breeding. I have selected these two purposely because, while 

 they are both pedigrees of pure-bred animals, yet one shows a great 

 mixture as regards ancestry and the other shows marked uniformity. 

 The closeness of blood relationship, then^ is an important factor and 

 the resemblance to parents in form, color, structure and function. If 

 the parents are very similar, the offspring is likely to resemble more 

 nearly the parents than if the parents are quite dissimilar. 



For the present, we will pass to the next subject, the law of varia- 

 tion. Illustrations of this law are so common that they have 

 come under the observation of all observing minds, therefore, it 

 is hardly necessary to present these illustrations to show that this 

 law is continually in force. Some may vary more and some may vary 

 less. It is true of all organized beings, whether animals or plants; 

 they possess a certain amount of flexibility or pliancy which renders 

 them capable of varying to a greater or less extent; but all organized 



