FIFTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VII 459 



your children, and made you prosperous, buy a quarter's worth of chloro- 

 form, let her die easily, and hire a man to dig her grave. You will still 

 have a hundred more dollars than the other cow earned. 



Having decided the breed, secure a pure bred sire whose pedigree 

 is not only reliable, but also vouches for the fact that his ancestors were 

 productive and profitable. 



BULL MUST HAVTE GOOD ANCESTRY. 



Do not think because a bull is pure bred and has a pedigree that he 

 must necessarily be a good bull. The value of the pedigree is measured 

 by the story it tells. Demand that the pedigree of your bull proves 

 beyond a doubt that his material ancestors back for six generations were 

 great producing cows and good individuals, and that his sire's ancestors 

 were sires of such cows. Avoid the pedigree that merely sets forth 

 the fact that the bull has ancestors. Such a pedigree is valueless. The 

 presence of the bull assures you that he had ancestors. Remember that 

 one of the greatest laws of breeding is that, "like begets like, or the 

 likeness of an ancestor," and that the greatest improvement of all breeds 

 of live stock has come through the recognition of this law. Therefore, 

 it is not enough that your bull have a good productive mother. The 

 offspring may, and likely will, revert in certain characteristics to an- 

 cestors more remote, and the thoughtful breeders demand that all female 

 ancestors, for at least six generations, show in the pedigree of the sire 

 by tabulated records that they have been producers. 



Then, if the pedigree also shows that the paternal ancestors have been 

 the sires of productive offspring, it is reasonably safe to assume that 

 whether the bull begets his own or his ancestors' likeness, the results 

 will be an improvement. Considering these facts, it would seem scarcely 

 necessary to advise against the use of a grade sire. Yet I know dairy- 

 men, otherwise very intelligent, who are using grade bulls. Their excuse 

 is that their bulls have good mothers, and they believe this sufficient evi- 

 dence that they will also have good daughters. Knowing nothing, how- 

 ever, about the grandmothers, great grandmothers and more remote an- 

 cestors, it is a fallacy to believe that there is a certainty of the offspring 

 being uniformly even a creditable lot. 



SIRE MUST BE MASCULINE IN TYPE. 



The sire must be masculine in appearance and be endowed with that 

 Strength of character which is indicated by large, bright, prominent 

 eyes, between which the face is broad and, in all, impressive in appear- 

 ance, stamping him as having the power of transmitting the characteris- 

 tics of his ancestors. Bulls with dull, sluggish eyes, narrow heads and 

 necks, lacking the characteristic bullish crest, and effeminate in appear- 

 ance, are to be avoided, for, excellent as may be the records of ancestry, 

 the indications are that their valuable traits will not be perpetuated by 

 the sire in question, for he lacks the most essential points indicative of 

 prepotency. If the cows upon which he is used are strongly bred, either 

 along acceptable or meager lines, they will each quite likely reproduce 

 their characteristics, or those of their ancestors, with the result that 

 the increase in the herd will lack uniformity and be a heterogeneous 



