176 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



The practice of in-and-in breeding, and in-breeding, should not be 

 denounced entirely, for they may become useful factors when employed 

 by those skilled in the art of breeding; they must almost necessarily 

 be used in the formation of new breeds, where it is the aim to fix new 

 characters in animals, and secure uniformity and permanence in the 

 transmission of the same. But, on the other hand, the improver of 

 common stocks has no occasion to resort to close breeding. He is not 

 going to become a former of new breeds or types but is going to im- 

 prove his common stocks through up-grading, in which he will rely 

 solely on the prepotency of the sires chosen to work the transformations 

 by which each succeeding generation will be brought more near to his 

 own standard of excellence. 



PREPOTENCY. 



What is prepotency? '^Strictly speaking, prepotency is the superior 

 power which one parent has over the other in determining the char- 

 acter of the offspring. But the term is more commonly used to indicate 

 that power which an animal has to transmit its own qualities." "If 

 a pure male were to beget progeny from females of the same breed, 

 which bear a close resemblance to the male parent, this result would 

 be a stronger evidence of prepotency in the male, than a similar result 

 produced by mating him with females of mixed breeding, since the re- 

 sistance to modification in the progeny of the females in the first in- 

 stance, would be stronger than resistance to the same in females in 

 the second instance." This quality in a sire is one of the most im- 

 portant factors stimulating rapid improvement in any process of up- 

 grading. It is more important in the sire than the dam, as the effect 

 on the sire's side is more far reaching. Probably one of the most diffi- 

 cult things in animal breeding is to determine whether a sire is pos- 

 sessed of prepotency or not. It is conceded by some, that prepotency 

 is the result of certain lines of breeding, and that certain visible char- 

 acteristics must accompany it. The following are some influences tend- 

 ing to produce prepotency, viz.: (1) duration of purity of breeding 

 without admixture of alien blood; (2) uniformity of type and results 

 from animals in pedigree; (3) inherent vigor of type, race or indi- 

 vidual; (4) line breeding. To illustrate the first point; it is well known 

 that it matters little with what breed or type a Holstein bull is mated, 

 the offspring is almost sure to resemble the sire markedly in character- 

 istics, and particularly in color; it is doubtful if any breed of cattle 

 has been bred pure for a longer period than the Holstein, and the in- 

 herent vigor of the breed is indisputable. The ability of the Hereford, 

 also, to transmit uniformly its characteristic color markings, especially 

 the white face, is an evidence of prepotency, the result of a long 

 period of pure breeding. In selecting a prepotent sire, it is well to 

 study the pedigree and ascertain as far as possible what is known rela- 

 tive to the performance of the ancestry as breeders, for an animal the 

 progeny of prepotent ancestry, is certainly likely to be more prepotent 

 than an animal whose ancestors have not been prepotent. 



Illustrations Nos. 3, 4 and 5 must be considered not singly but as 

 a group. The upper row of illustration No. 4 represents two pedigreed 



