VERMONT AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 75 



counteract the influence that leads to deterioration, it will be 

 sure to result. 



There is a third law or principle that now shows its 

 force, viz., atavism, or breeding- back, as it is often called. 

 This is the condition when offspring take on characters that 

 were prominent in more or less remote ancestors. Now, if 

 you are improving jour breed you may want to get rid of 

 these old characters, because offspring should be superior to 

 all their ancestors; hence, this outcropping of the old is an- 

 tagonistic to improvement. 



Every farmer wishes to improve his breed ; how shall he 

 do it ? I think it undesirable for the majority of the farmers 

 to sell their grade stock. If improvement of a dairy herd is 

 desired, get a Babcock milk tester and test the milk of the 

 herd you have in order to determine the quality of the milk 

 your cows are giving. At the same time, in fact for all fu- 

 ture time keep a record of the milk each cow in your herd is 

 giving. This will show what cows are profitable and what 

 ones are not. Sell off those that are not paying for their 

 feed. 



Now get a good bull. Not a grade bull, because 

 atavism will be sure to result to the offspring, and then a 

 grade bull is not pupatent. Get a good pure-bred sire, whose 

 mother and ancestors were good milkers. This being the 

 case, the offspring will doubtless have the milk-producing 

 character. Now, how about the pedigree of this bull? Well, 

 lots about it ; the further back it runs the better, because the 

 purer the blood. But that isn't enough ; we have thousands 

 of pedigreed animals that are scarcely paying for their 

 board. You want a bull with a good pedigree, but that pedi- 

 gree must be backed by performance, that is by ancestors that 

 were milk producers. Now, select for breeding stock o Jy 

 those that have the desirable characters and type of the ii.ilk 

 animal ; wedge shaped when viewed from rear, side or fr mt ; 

 thin neck and withers; open backbone; long, well sprunp ribs, 

 far apart; prominent pelvic arch ; fine bone; loose, mellov: skin; 

 large, full but not fleshy udder, that is well attached i-i front 

 and highly attached in the rear, and thin thighs. 



This expresses the ideal dairy type. Breed to it and for 

 it. Select animals for breeding that will transmit these 

 characters. There are yet two more prominent points to be 

 considered: in and in-breeding and cross-breeding. The first, 

 if carried to excess, always results in a loss of constitutional 

 vigor in the produce, yet it is in the direction of fineness of 

 texture, smoothness, evenness and polish. On the other 

 hand, cross-breeding gives increased size and vigor in the 

 produce. So if you are breeding for the market you want in- 



