No. 6. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 429 



of the other indications, and all these will be more potent when the 

 feeding and management are favorable to high development. 



In addition to the indications mentioned, the performance of the 

 immediate ancestors for several generations should be carefully 

 noted. By performances is meant what the animals have done in 

 speed attainment, milk, meat or wool production, according to the 

 end for which they are kept. Nor should the fact ever be lost sight 

 of, that high performance in the ancestry is valuable as it is near, 

 and less valuable as it is remote. High performance in the immedi- 

 ate parent of a sire is of great value, but high performance in an 

 ancestor of ten generations in the upward line of ascent is of but 

 little account. This will be readily apparent when it is remembered 

 that the blood properties of an ancestor of ten generations previ- 

 ously, are only present in an infinitesimal degree. 



The claim, therefore, that an animal traces to some famous ances- 

 tor of many generations back, is of but little account. It can only 

 deceive those who do not know. Excellence in performance in the 

 near ancestry is not only valuable, but it is valuable in proportion as 

 it is uniform in the near ancestry and far reaching in its comprehen- 

 siveness. By uniformity is meant evenness of performance in all the 

 near generations, and by comprehensiveness the extent to which 

 various desired qualities are present. 



IMPROVEMENT THROUGH UP-GRADING. 



By up-grading is meant the improvement of common stocks 

 through the use of successive sires chosen from one and the same 

 pure breed. For instance, when common females, it may be of mixed 

 breeding, are mated with a pure bred Holstein sire, and when the 

 female progeny continue to be thus mated in succceeding genera- 

 tions, the product are termed grade Holsteins, and when this line of 

 breeding is continued for several generations, they are termed high- 

 grade Holsteins. When good and prepotent sires are chosen, it is 

 in a sense wonderful how quickly common stocks will be improved, 

 providing the food given is suitable and the care of the animals is 

 proper. 



When the process begins, mixed blood elements in the females is 

 no detriment. It does not stand in the way of quick improvement. 

 In fact the reverse may be true, since every additional blood element 

 lessens prepotency in the female. In other words, the less purely 

 bred she is, the less the power that she will have to transmit her own 

 properties. Consequently, when mated with a purely bred prepotent 

 sire, the preponderance of resemblance in the progeny is to the sire. 

 The preponderance in all essential properties will come from him 

 also, and in both instances, because of his superior prepotency. 



Analyze further this up-grading process. Suppose the foundation 

 female is a ewe secured from the range and that she is possessed of 

 the blood elements of a dozen different breeds. She is mated with a 

 prepotent Southdown male. Let the difference in blood elements or 

 properties between the two at the outset be represented by 100. The 

 first thought would be, that 50 per cent, of the properties or elements 

 in the progeny would be inherited from the dam and the same from 

 the sire. That is not true. More than 50 per cent, of those properties 

 come from the sire, as many more as the prepotency of the sire in 



