436 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



to produce a more numerous progeny than if they were not in that 

 condition when they arc mated. 



The SECRETARY: In feeding swine, don't you think if brood sows 

 are fed on foods that are rich in protein, that it will increase the 

 progeny? 



PROF. SHAW: Yes, and that is a matter of breeds, also. 



DR. SCHAEFFER: I would like to know what in your opinion is 

 the difference in the weight between the Jersey and the Guernsey 

 family — the average? 



PROF. SHAW: I think it would not be less than a full hundred 

 to a hundred and fifty pounds; of course we can only answer that ap- 

 proximately. 



A Member: I want to ask you whether breeders pay any atten- 

 tion to the so-called Mendel's law in biology. The Dean of Illinois 

 University told me not long ago that Burbank of California ignores 

 Mendel's law altogether in improving the fruits and flowers that 

 made him famous. Now is there any attention paid to Mendel's law 

 in breeding? 



PROF. SHAW: In practical breeding I do not think there is by 

 the ordinary breeder. There may be a few scientists that are giving 

 it some attention, but that law, so far as applied to animal life — 

 it is advantageous in a tentative stage to consider it, but it is not 

 universally accepted by practical breeders; I do not think it is prac- 

 tical at all. 



A Member: Can you state what Mendel's law is? 



PROF. SHAW: Well, gentlemen, I am not going fully into that, 

 for there is not time, but in breeding, the transmission takes place 

 as it were, in physiological units. To illustrate, suppose you get a 

 sire that has no horns; probably his ancestors in a near generation 

 may have had horns. Now in ordinary reasoning, we imagine there 

 would be some danger that when that sire is used, that his progeny 

 would have horns. Now according to Mendel's law, that sire can re- 

 produce horns because of the character of the transmission which 

 he has inherited. 



A Member: On that question of mating Holsteins and Jerseys, I 

 would like to inquire how many ever saw four or five good cows pro- 

 duced from that cross in the same herd? 



PROF. SHAW: You are talking now about crossing pure breds, 

 are you? 



A Member: Yes, the question was asked whether you could do it 

 and get the quality of one and the quantity of the other. I say, 

 how many ever saw four or five good cows produced in the same herd 

 from that crossing? 



MR. HERR: It it a custom, I know, among some of our dairymen 

 who are selling milk. Their idea is to get very rich milk and yet 

 have a good deal of it, and they cross Jersey sires with Holstein 

 dams, and for the first generation they seem to reach good results. 



