No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 523 



are breeding Guernsey cattle. I think in a few years Blissville, Mich., 

 will be noted for Guernseys as Howell, Mich., is for Holsteins, sim- 

 ply because they show the facts to me. They have been breeding 

 upon the common stock and the farmers have got to buying pure- 

 bred Guernsey sires and in many instances pure-bred females of the 

 Guernsey breed. 



We do more than that. We keep a record in the Department of 

 Agriculture at College of every member's herd, of the officers of the 

 association, and some member from the Department of Agriculture 

 visits each of these associations once a year at their annual meeting ; 

 sometimes the President of the College; sometimes the Secretary of 

 the College; but more often those directly engaged in the work, the 

 head of the Dairj' Department, the Beef Department or Dean of the 

 Agriculture College, some member of the faculty visits these associa- 

 tions and hears the plans and methods they are using for improve- 

 ment of livestock, and we keep record of these things. (Applause). 



ADDRESS 



By JOHN D. NICHOLS, Cleveland. Ohio. 



Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: I fail to understand why 

 your Chairman should have butted in on the discussion that was 

 going on, as 1 assure yau much more good could be gotten out of the 

 discussion than you can get out of anything I may say to you. 



I have been very much interested in the address and discussion 

 following, and I can only voice the sentiments of the gentleman, that 

 a breeding association is very valuable to all parties concerned. It is 

 valuable to the members of the association ; it is valuable to the com- 

 munity living around where the association exists ; and it is valuable 

 to the fellow who is looking around for a particular kind of stock 

 that association is breeding. If you don't believe that, you start out 

 and try to buy three, four or five carloads of cows of one particular 

 form and have to drive from pillar to post, from Dan to Beersheba, 

 to find the stock you want, i'ou have to go through sections of the 

 country which it has been my fortune to visit and you will find two 

 or three Jersey herds and two or three Guernsey herds and two or 

 three Holstein herds and you will find two or three Ayrshire herds; 

 and you have to drive all around to buy a carload of one particular 

 breed. 



Another thing: There has been much said about the sire. I be- 

 lieve that the greatest mistake by the breeders of dairy cattle in 

 this country to-day is in the selection of the sire that heads the herd. 

 It has been said that the sire is half the herd. Sometimes I think 

 it is about nine-eights, especially if you are going to raise them. I 

 have a friend back home who was talking to me some years ago — (me 

 of the largest dairymen in Northwestern Ohio. He said: "I want to 



