128 STATE BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



meut is not difficult. It being of a varied nature and not bred to any fixe^ 

 line of breeding, the use of almost any well-proportioned thoroughbred male 

 will make some improvement. With cattle most breeders consider that the 

 first cross is the most marked, but as nature never duplicates its work, if we 

 would secure a continued improvement, we must continue to use thorough- 

 bred sires and never a grade or native, as they are almost certain to breed 

 back and transmit the defects of one or more generations. But some say, 

 '*If a one-half or three-quarter bred animal has the shape, size, and quality 

 of a thoroughbred, why will he not transmit his good qualities as well as the 

 pure bred?" It is because there is no fixedness of type, and they do not 

 transmit their qualities with any degree of certainty. The various breeds 

 have been brought to their present perfection only by a long-studied and 

 systematic course of breeding. For examples, Charles Colling, who first 

 brought the short-horn cattle into prominent notice, took the iitmost Care and 

 pains in selecting the finest cattle from herds that had been carefully bred 

 for years. It is to this herd that is traced all of the purest short-horn blood 

 of to-day. 



One of the earliest Hereford breeders, Mr. Price, bred carefully for a 

 time, and by making one cross to increase the size of his cattle, lost all his 

 labor and had to return to his first selection. In making his first selection he 

 secured animals from a herd which had been kept pure for forty years. He 

 then bred them for forty years more, so that for eighty years the character of 

 these cattle was being fixed by careful selection. In a similar manner have 

 our sheep and swine been bred, breeders always having some type or standard 

 from which to breed, and always adhering to that as a model. 



That sire is the most valuable that produces the greatest similarity in his 

 getting in the desired direction, and we would be most likely to find such 

 qualities in an animal that shows by his ancestry that care has been taken to 

 breed in a certain direction, and for some definite purpose through several 

 generations. For example, the beef breeds have been bred with the object in 

 view of bringing them to perfection, in size, form, and quality, at the earliest 

 possible age. On an average our native cattle will not weigh over 1,200 

 pounds at three or four years of age, while by one or two crosses, grades under 

 similar management and care are made to weigh as much, and even more, at 

 two years of age. It needs no argument to show which is the most profitable, 

 a steer or heifer at one year of age that weighs 1,000 pounds, or a two-year- 

 old that with the same care weighs no more. The market reports show that 

 choice grades actually bring from $2 to $2^ more per hundred weight than 

 good native steers. I might cite you cases where native and grade cattle have 

 been kept alike, and in nearly every instance the difference has been in favor 

 of the grade. 



If we can by better feeding and breeding increase at two or three years old 

 the weight to 1,200 or 1,400 pounds, we will not only get greater weight for 

 the same feed, but will save time and get a much better price per pound. The 

 use of a fine wooled ram on a common flock of sheep will not only improve 

 the lambs in form and in quality of wool, but will often increase the amount 

 of wool a pound or more per head, so that you not only add dollars and cents 

 by the increase from the amount of wool each year, but you are adding 

 material value to the sheep themselves. 



It is a combination of feeding with breeding that brings good results. A 

 great many act on the principle that the breed is all that is necessary, but no 



