44 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



during the coming year, and it is hoped that within a few years a 

 considerable number of suitable horses will be available for the 

 Army. 



CATTLE BREEDING. 



In the breeding of Holstein cattle in cooperation with the North 

 Dakota Experiment Station good results were obtained during the 

 year, although the records made by the cows were not as large as 

 during the preceding year because of shortage of feed production. 

 Six heifers were put into the Advanced Registry during the year. 

 A large number of grade heifers have been sold from the circuit, and 

 the surplus pure-bred bulls have been sold readily^ most of them 

 going to farmers in the immediate vicinity. The benefits of the work 

 are therefore not confined to the herds in the circuit. 



A substantial increase in the production of milk and butterfat was 

 made by the herds in the cooperative experiment in breeding milking 

 Shorthorn cattle at the University of Minnesota. There has been an 

 increase of almost 1,000 pounds of milk per cow during the last two 

 years. At the end of the fiscal year the department's cooperation in 

 this work ended. 



SHEEP AND GOATS. 



Experiments in sheep breeding are being carried on in Wyoming, 

 Vermont, and Maryland. In the Wyoming investigations, in which 

 an effort is being made to improve the wool and mutton qualities of 

 range sheep, the wool clip of the past year was the best in quality 

 obtained since the experiment was inaugTirated, although the average 

 weight was slightly less than in the preceding year. The Southdown 

 flock, at the Morgan horse farm at Middlebury, Vt., has done w^ell. 

 A good lamb crop was secured, and the wool clip was the best since 

 the flock was founded. 



Experiments in breeding sheep and goats are also in progress at 

 the farm of the Bureau of Animal Industry at Beltsville, Md., where 

 various breeds are being crossbred with Barbados and Karakule 

 sheep. The object of the go^t-breeding experiments is to obtain a 

 strain of milking goats. An exceptionally good crop of kids was 

 obtained this year. 



POULTRY AND EGG INVESTIGATIONS. 



The experiments in breeding Barred Plymouth Rock fowls for 

 increased egg production at the Maine Experiment Station are ap- 

 proaching a close, as the final solution of the main features of the 

 problem of the inheritance of egg production has been reached. 

 These results will be made available in publications. 



Studies of the commercial fattening and marketing of poultry in 

 the West have been continued and some of the results published. 



