648 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



case the result is milk, in the other wool, in the other speed or draft, 

 land the same mystery appears in the same family of aoimals. 

 Twelve quarts of oats fed .to J.l.C. resulted in a mile in 2:10. That 

 was the speed product of 12 quarts of oats, provided they were fed 

 to J.l.C. Two cows stand side by side in my barn. They are of the 

 same breed, and both are fed the same ration. One cow takes that 

 fooa and turns out two pounds of butter fat a day, the other one 

 pound. \» hat is that secret through which co,mes such a wide dis- 

 parity of results? So far as we can see, it is individuality. 



Isow, men have seized upon these individual traits in animals. 

 They are functional in character. By steadfast, patient work, 

 mating agreeing individualities or functions together, after a long 

 time they have established these traits as breed characteristics and 

 we have the §peed or draft function in horses, the milk and butter 

 trait, or the meat producing trait in cattle, the hne wool or mutton 

 function in sheep, and so on. A great variety of ruling traits have 

 been established. Hut it is very slow work. Nature yields but re- 

 luctantly to any and all modifications of structure and specific pur- 

 pose. 



The modern dairy cow, as has been well said, is an artificial pro- 

 duct, ishe is greatly needed in the sharp, close economy of our farm- 

 ing work because of the greatly increaf?ing demand for her product. 

 This modern dairy cow is not a rustler. She must be given the care, 

 surroundings or environment, and feed suitable to her artilical na- 

 ture, if you expect the results she is capable of giving. 



Then conn s this everlasting proposition of farm economics, reduc- 

 ing the cost of production. \\ hen 1 turn to those two cows, one 

 giving me twice the product for the same cost of food that the other 

 does, I naturally inquire how this comes. Now when I find that 

 the lirst cow comes down from a better line of producing ancestors 

 than the other, it is apt to impress me with the idea that there is 

 something in breeding, not everything, but something. 



Now, all there is to this question of breeding for specific qualities 

 or traits, is the attempt to establish as a breed characteristic, that 

 which originally existed as an individual characteristic. Bo after 

 a loiig time, we have the Holstein cow with her peculiar traits, 

 bred into her for a thousand years; the Ayrshire with hers, the 

 Jersey and the Guernsey with theirs. If yo.u study her you will 

 find that Nature does her best work in straight lines, and in obe- 

 dience to single purposes. If you attempt to make her construct a 

 combined speed and draft horse, or a combined milk and beef cow, 

 she tells you at once that the structural type of form of each is 

 different owing to the demand of diifering functions, the same as 

 the difference in form of the sewing machine and the mowing 

 machine. 



She tells you also that established prepotencies of hereditary, 

 one opposing the other, cannot be mated and combined to the estab- 

 lishment of a third prepotency imrtaking of the nature of both. 



She tells you further, that such a forced combination results in 

 a conflict of prepotencies and no wise breeder will set Nature to 

 fighting herself. Our ''dual purpose" friends have made one serious 

 mistake. They have based their theory too much on the sporadic 

 or occasional appearance of some most excellent cow here and there 



