TWELFTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART X 467 



Co-operation is the watchword of the hobbies of this community. Other 

 places over the state are making similar progress with their live stock 

 shows. In every place the effect on the neighborhood has been beneficial. 

 It is reasonable to believe that other counties will soon adopt a simi'ar 

 hobby, perhaps not of horses, but of cattle, or hogs or some other form 

 of live stock, for the principles that apply to the one apply to the other 

 equally well. 



SELECTION OF BREEDING STOCK. 



BY W. J. KE^NTNEDY, IOWA STATE COLLEGE. 



No man ever has succeeded and no man ever will succeed for any 

 length of time in the breeding of live stock who does not have as his* 

 slogan the word "Utility." Almost a century ago, Amos Cruickshank, 

 "the herdsman of Aberdeenshire," said: "The real test of value in beef 

 cattle is their ability to turn straw, turnips, and cake into pounds, shil- 

 lings and pence at a profit." When ridiculed by his fellow-breeders be- 

 cause he overlooked fashionable pedigrees and co'or markings, he re- 

 plied that the only question in his mind was, "What is best for our 

 country, our agriculture, and our people." It would be a Godsend to our 

 American live stock interests if we had today a thousand Ames Cruick- 

 shanks, so that we might put one in each of the thousand counties which 

 constitute our Corn Belt states. The useful animal has always been a 

 money-maker and will continue to be so in the future. 



No man ever has succeeded and no man ever will succeed for any 

 length of time in breeding live stock who attaches his kite to "faddism." 

 We do not need to mention any one particular individual to demonstrate 

 the folly of such work. There is hardly a county in any live stock sec- 

 tion of this country or any other country, which has not anywhere from 

 one to twenty men who have clearly demonstrated that "faddism" is al- 

 ways a forerunner of failure. By "faddism" I refer to the tendency on 

 the part of many men to disregard the really useful features on an animal 

 and go to the extreme on certain blood lines, color markings, shape of 

 ear, head, etc. I do not wish to be understood as being opposed to beauty 

 of form, color or general appearance. I am not. In fact, I always like 

 to see these things when combined with the utility points. But, if I had 

 to sacrifice something in selecting a breeding animal it would be the 

 fancy points and not these which indicate utility. 



The longer I study and handle live stock the more I become con- 

 vinced that the first and most important point to be observed in all meat 

 and milk-producing animals, is a good middle. The s:gns of constitution 

 and digestive capacity present their most visible manifestations in the 

 body and not in the extremities. The animal is simply a machine to 

 convert feed into more edible produces such as meat and milk. Its ca- 

 pacity is governed almcst solely by the size of the middle. These are 

 points which mean dollars and cents to every man who handles live 

 stock. 



