45° 



Journal of Agriculture. 



[lo Aug., 1908. 



of transmitting its peculiar qualities will become stronger and stronger. 

 But, on the other hand, if the parents are not alike, and there are any 

 essential differences between the male and female, instead of the power 

 of heredity becoming stronger and stronger with every successive genera- 

 tion, it will become weaker and very greatly reduced, so that it cannot 

 be depended upon at all as a practical aid to breeding what is wanted. 



Dairy farmers are frequently heard to say that they care nothing 

 about pedigree; they desire to see the bull, and then they can tell 

 whether thev want to breed from him or not. There can be no greater 

 mistake made, for the reason that this hereditary power is latent — is 

 hidden in the system. It cannot be detected by the eye, it cannot be 

 detected bv an\ known law, except that of hereditary influence, in other 

 words, pedigree. If the farmer knows positively the peculiar char- 

 acteristics of all the ancestors of the animals he is about to breed from, 

 then he can tell with some degree of certainty what the result is likely 

 to be. A pedigree in itself may not be worth the paper it is written 

 upon, unless vou know the characters of the ancestry recorded in it; that 



I. OLD MILKMAID 



AND SIX OK HER PROGENY. 



■"Old Milkmaid" was bred bv the late Hon. j. H. Connor, M.I..C., and is now- 

 owned bv Mr. W. Woodmason, Malvern. 



is, unless you know that in each case the male and female in each suc- 

 cessive generation have been alike in their good qualities. This fact is 

 fully illustrated in the photograph reproduced on this page; No. 6 in 

 the group of the cows is " Old Milkmaid," now 18 years of age. 

 She was bred by mv late father, the Hon. J. H. Connor, M.L.C., at 

 his stud farm at Beeac, and sold to Mr. W. Woodmason. of Malvern, 

 after (Traipeting in the butter test competition at the Royal Show, Mel- 

 bourne, in 1898. On that occasion she w^as awarded second place, in a 

 big field, m.aking 4 lbs. 5j oz. of butter im 48 hours. At the Royal 

 Show, 1899, she divided second prize, making 2 lbs. of butter in 24 

 hours ; also winning the gold medal for loest qualit\ and quantity com- 

 bined. At the Roval Show, 1901 (when 11 years old) she again made 

 2 lbs. butter in 24 hours. She has bred regularly every year since she 

 was 2 years old. and Mr. Woodmason has twelve valuable female de- 

 scendants from her, besides having sold n\er j^ioo worth of her progeny, 

 not including bull calves. Before selling this row mv father won the 

 dairy cow competition prizes at Geelong and Colac Agricultural Shows, 



