224 ANNUAL REPORT. OF THE Off. Doc. 



There is a prevalent idea that one animal with good qualities 

 crossed with another animal with certain good (|u;»]i(ies which are 

 wholly lacking in the first animal, will produce oilspring having the 

 good qualities of both parents. We hear of that idea frequently at 

 the College and I may say that farmers or breeders who attempt it 

 are quite sure to be disappointed; it is very unlikely to occur. It 

 is more likely to produce the bad qualities of both than the good 

 qualities of either, or reversion may occur, that is the offspring resem- 

 ble a distant ancestor rather than either parent. That frequently 

 happens; perhaps all of you have seen illustrations of this kind. 

 If you breed a w^hite breed of fowls together and a black breed to- 

 gether, what are we likely to get? We are just as likely to get a 

 copper colored breed as black fowls or white fowls, or a mixed black 

 and white. 



Not long ago an educated man, a successful man along his lines 

 of work, who was interested in agriculture, said to me that he pro- 

 posed to cross the Jerseys and Holsteins, hoping to secure the good 

 qualities of both. He could not understand why his plan was not a 

 rational one to pursue; he could not see that the poor qualities of 

 both were more likely to be transmitted to the offspring than the 

 good qualities of either. Now, why is that so? You all undoubtedly 

 wdll agree with me when I say that those qualities which are most 

 likely to be transmitted to offspring are those that are common to 

 both parents. The qualities common to both parents, or the char- 

 acteristics of both parents, are the ones that are the most likely to 

 be transmitted to the offspring. Where the parents are very unlike, 

 the characteristics that are common to both are likely to be of a com- 

 mon or unimproved ancestry. Now what are you going to get when 

 you cross-breed such animals, that are wholly unlike? Are you go- 

 nig to get the flow of milk of the Holstein and the quality of the Jer- 

 seys? Once in a thousand times, maybe; maybe once in five hundred; 

 I can't tell. But you are not likely to secure it, so we have this de- 

 duction. If we are to cross with the greatest success, we should 

 select animals that resemble each other, as far as possible, in the 

 desired characteristics, in order to secure the desired results by cross- 

 ing the breed that is to be improved; then, if wiiat has been pre- 

 sented to you is true, one breed should be weakened as to its char- 

 acteristics. If one breed has come down through a longer line of 

 pure bred ancestry and the other has not, the pure bred breed is 

 likely to transmit its characteristics to a much greater degree than 

 the other. 



There are instances where pure breeds that are quite unlike have 

 been crossed and produced desirable offspring. It is said that the 

 Plymouth Rock fowls were produced in that way by crossing the 



