LECTURES AND ESSAYS. 483 



ideal; but if any success is attained it will be because you study and plod 

 along the same lines of practice adopted by your predecessors over the sea, 

 because you have the same object in view for a guiding star, an inspiration. 

 What is science in breeding cattle but the application of those principles 

 that long years of observation and experience in actual breeding have 

 demonstrated to be of general application? It is the right use of what is 

 known on this subject. Not the counterfeit wisdom which is too often 

 apparent in the advocacy of unknown if not unknowable theories. With a 

 profound respect for every ray of light, for every grain of knowledge that 

 modern science can contribute to us in our labors as breeders, we must not 

 forget that success will only crown our efforts when we utilize our knowledge 

 by applying it in common sense ways along the lines where the best practice 

 of the wisest doers in the past has marked the lines of real advance in breed- 

 ing. An English writer has recently said with much truth, that great 

 dairy properties may be present where there is also a tendency to rapid and 

 abundant flesh-making; that you have, for instance, an excellent dairy cow 

 which, when fed off, at least makes a profitable return to the grazers and 

 pleases the butcher and his customers besides. Such animals indeed are 

 common enough in districts where breeding for general purposes is skill- 

 fully practiced, but they do not supply evidence contradictory to the 

 necessity of sticking to one object if you want perfection in any one property. 

 They rather suggest what may be done by repeated blendings of properties 

 which cannot permanently co-exist without more or less impairing one 

 another. They are not, it is here suggested, examples of permanent results, 

 but of results which may be obtained in perpetuity by fresh combinations.'* 



So far as the Holstein-Friesian breed is considered for beef production, we 

 should not forget that this quality has been secondary in importance ever 

 since the breed had a history. I have no hesitancy in saying that in my 

 opinion the future success of the breed depends upon keeping this quality 

 in subjection to the dairy qualities. 



It will not be forgotten by those conversant with the history of the early 

 Shorthorns, that the Teeswater breed, as they were called in an early day in 

 Yorkshire, England, were noted for dairy qualities, and while some of the 

 descendants of this old stock have been so wisely bred that this quality of 

 milk production has not been lost, in far too many cases the desire for 

 symmetry, beef quality and early maturity has led to a course of breeding 

 that has sacrificed this quality in good part. That Shorthorn breeders 

 realize that such action has not been altogether wise is evident from the 

 official action of the State and National organizations on this subject. 



There is no question of the quick growing qualities of the Holstein-Frie- 

 sian breed; I have had some opportunity of comparing their growth with the 

 so-called beef breeds, under exactly the same conditions, and I think that they 

 will make as many pounds in the same time as any other breed. They lack 

 the early maturing qualities, the large development in the places where our 

 highest priced cuts are secured, the early ripeness and finish which are prime 

 characteristics of the beef breeds ; characteristics, remember, that may have 

 been secured through generations of breeding for this particular develop- 

 ment, and at a corresponding loss, invariably, of dairy qualities. 



And so, while I am forced to the conclusion that while they are quick growers, 

 they lack in the qualities that will enable them to compete in beef rings with 

 the earlier maturing breeds. I must say, in all honesty, that I believe that 



