SIXTH ANNUAL TEAR BOOK — PART VII. 475 



of each has been lost. The two currents of blood have mixed together 

 and the direction of each has been diverted into a new channel. The two 

 currents have come together from different directions and by opposition 

 the flow has to a great extent ceased. The cross-bred animal thus pro- 

 duced may and often does appear better in many respects of conformation 

 than either of the parents. This is well seen in the steers and heifers ot 

 cross-breeding exhibited so successfully at the International Live Stock 

 Exposition and other similar fat stock shows. Such animals are often 

 of superlative merit and quality in shape and in propensity to lay on flesh 

 and fat rapidly, evenly and upon the most profitable parts of the frame. 

 • But they never are used for breeding purposes. The breeder Understands 

 from experience that animals thus bred lack prepotency of breed and 

 individual and, therefore, cannot transmit the perfections of their con- 

 formation and character to their progeny. The preotency of such 

 animals, if present, is a mixed one. There is no prepotency in a direct 

 line, for the production of a specific breed character. 



If used for breeding purposes a male of this breeding has no power to 

 transmit his individual characteristics while his breed characteristics 

 being an alloy of those of two distinct breeds cannot be transmitted. 

 The crossing of two distinct breeds of horses-apart from the legitimate 

 and advisable crossing of a pure-bred upon native, "scrub" or grade mares 

 wit^ the intention of persistent work in the same direction until purity 

 of blood is arrived at — is to be considered detrimental and as surely pro- 

 ductive of disappointing results as the similar employment of grade sires. 

 The so-called "Select Clydesdale" is a cross between the pure-bred Clydes- 

 dale and English Shire — two distinct but somewhat similar breeds — and 

 cannot be expected to perfectly transmit the characteristics of either 

 Clyde or Shire. This cross produces first class horses to be gelded for 

 heavy draft work and the females are eminently suitable for similar 

 labor. They should not be used for breeding purposes, however, unless 

 to successively top-cross them with sires of one pure breed — either Shire 

 or Clyde according to the preference of the breeder — so long as the breed 

 chosen is exclusively and successively used. These truths apply with 

 equal force to every combination of two pure breeds and our breeders will 

 do well to reject for breeding purposes all stallions shown by their pedi- 

 grees to be cross-bred. 



VALUE OF PEDIGREE. 



The pedigree of a horse is simply a record showing the animals that 

 have in succession entered into the breeding of the individual. It 

 shows too that he belongs to a distinct breed, possessing, therefore, the 

 prepotency of that breed and in addition to this possession it guarantees 

 a certain degree of individual prepotency, dependant upon the excel- 

 lence and known prepotency of the ancestors on each side of the 

 pedigree. To insure both breed prepotency and individual prepotency 

 the animal represented by the pedigree should have several recorded 

 animals upon the dam's side and the more and better the mares the more 

 certain will be the good breeding qualifications of the pedigreed animal. 



