378 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



offspring. Among them are some excellent cows and some worth- 

 less. Froni the good dams we secured good daughters; from in- 

 ferior dams inferior quality of daughters. 



RECORDS OF 



TEN DAUGHTERS OF MINETTES PEDRO 



AND THEIR DAMS 



AVERAGE YEARLY MILK 



da-ms 14965 



PRODUCTION IN POUNDS I — daughters D5093 



AVERAGE PERCENT OF FAT _ 



DAMS "1 4.97 



DAUGHTERS 15.02 



AVERAGE YEARLY FAT ' DAMS l 249 



PRODUCTION IN POUNDS r daught ers 1254 



INCREASE PER YEAR FOR 



TEN DAUGHTERS OF 



MINETTE'S PEDRO OVER I MILK 1280 LBS. 



DAMS. 



2 FAT , 50 LBS. 



3INC0ME 



MILK.6CT.QT S3840 

 FAT. 25CT.LB.S 12.50 



These figures show the immense difference in the way dairy 

 qualities are transmitted, even where all are pure-bred animals. 

 The selection of a herd bull is a very serious matter for the man 

 who is trying to build up his herd and the higher developed they 

 are in the way of dairy production, the more serious is the problem. 



One of the chief difficulties is that practically nothing can be 

 predicted from the looks of the animal, if he has the inherent char- 

 acteristics of transmitting good dairy qualities or not. Who will 

 undertake to judge by the appearance of a bull, if he is one that 

 will transmit dairy qualities as did Missouri Rioter 3rd, or whether 

 he is as worthless as Hugorotus? 



The man who will discover some means of so judging will con- 

 fer a benefit on breeders that can scarcely be estimated. 



There are two principles that are especially concerned with 

 breeding, and should be kept in mind. The first is that "like pro- 

 duces like," and the second is the law of "natural variations." 



The cow in the condition nature made her undoubtedly pro- 

 duced only milk enough to feed the calf for a few months until it 

 could subsist on other feeds. This milking characteristic was trans- 

 mitted quite regularly. It was a case where like generally pro- 



