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tfiiit may be fixed and perpetuated. This work has been in progress during tlie 

 past three years, but has not yet advanced far enough to reach definite results. 

 In I'JUU the Union Stoclcyard and Transit Company of Chicago furnished 

 funds for the inauguration of some breeding and feeding experiments liuown as 

 the pruuuctiou of " Blue-Gray " cattle, by the use of white Shorthorn sire on 

 grade and pure bred Galloway females. We have already produced two crops 

 of calves and the third is due this fall. The first crop is now coming two 

 years old, and they are being finished for market and for the International Live 

 Stock Exposition at Chicago, and some interesting and rather striidng results 

 have been attained. The superior reputation of these cattle as feeding bullocks 

 has been fully confirmed. They are not, however, quite as even in their flesh 

 and as smooth and uniform in their carcass in all cases as the modern market 

 demands. We hope to introduce some new features in this work during the 

 coming year by selecting ten of the best Galloway cows, which have during the 

 past two seasons been bred to a white Shorthorn bull, to be bred during the 

 coming year to a pure-bred Galloway, thus giving opportunity to test the theory 

 of " telegony." It is also proposed to select ten white Shorthorn females and 

 breed to a pure-bred Galloway bull, thus reversing the process of producing 

 Blue-Grays. Then, before we terminate the experiment, we shall do some breed- 

 ing with a view to fixing the Blue-Gray characteristics and endeavor to per- 

 petuate type. We are well aware that this may be a difiicult process, but it is 

 the intention to conduct some investigations along this line. 



During the progress of this work an interesting and unexpected i-esult was 

 obtained in the fact that the second crop of calves from the same cows and by 

 the same sire were not as uniform and as well colored as the first lot. There 

 is no means of accounting for this departure from the Blue-Gray color in the 

 greater number of instances in the second than in the first mating. It is 

 believed by many of our best breeders that subsequent offspring by the same sire 

 and from the same females will be more uniform in type and color and char- 

 acteristics than the first offspring. 



We have also planned to cross two breeds of hogs, using, perhaps, the Berk- 

 shire and Tamworth, with the sire of one breed in a given number of cases 

 and the sire of the other breed in an equal number of cases. Perhaps five or 

 ten sires of each lireed will be used and the work repeated several times. One 

 object of this will be to determine the relative influence of the sire and dam in 

 crossing distinct types. Some of these sows will then be bred back to sires of 

 the same breed, to test the theory of telegony in breeding hogs. 



In some work of this kind which has already been carried on during two 

 seasons it has seemed in crossing the Tamworth and Poland China that the 

 dam exerted the greater influence. When the I'oland China sire was used on 

 the Tamworth dam the offspring had more of the Tamworth than when the 

 Tamworth sire was used on the I'oland China dam. 



I believe that many of the theories and slipposed laws of heredity should be 

 tested by extensive and repeated experiments with domestic animals, and that 

 it is des'irable that this work be done with the larger rather than the smaller 

 animals, notwithstanding the fact that it will take a much longer time and 

 involve a greater expenditure. The work of Prof. Cossar Ewart in crossing 

 the horse a.id zebra, breeding back again to the original types, for the purpose 

 of testing the theory of telegony, has perhaps done more to establish conclusive 

 results concerning this one theory than all the previous investigations com- 

 bined. Professor Ewart's conclusions, however, are applied only to horses and 

 dogs, and he expresses no opinion concerning their application to other kinds 

 of domestic animals. Some of our plant breeders have obtained results which 

 tend quite conclusively to substantiate the Mendel law theory. Others have 

 obtained results quite the contrary. No one has yet endeavored to test the 

 application of this law to the breeding of the higher domestic animals. I am 

 told that one of our most extensive and successful dealers in heavy harness 

 horses of trotting blood has made the statement that his experience, extending 

 over a number of years and applying to many thousands of horses, selected with 

 the utmost care from perhaps hundreds of thousands that have been inspected, 

 has shown conclusively that 9."> per cent of the horses conforming to this type 

 in conformation, action, quality, and other characteristics that go to make up 

 the essential standard, may be traced directly to two sires. This man speaks 

 with considerable authority, as he has for years made it a practice to keep a 

 complete record, including the breeding, of each horse that has passed through 

 his stables. Possibly if these results were carefully investigated they might 

 establish a case of Mendelian dominance. 



