8 The Journal 
The study of heredity as it concerns 
the production of livestock in the 
United States has gone forward under 
the efforts and interest of competent 
and energetic investigators. There has 
been gratifying achievement. The 
champion dairy cow of today seldom 
retains her laurels, earned by a large 
vield, for more than a few years. 
Much the same is true in the show ring. 
In fact, with all stock, constant rivalry 
among breeders soon displaces the 
winners of one year with new champions. 
Yet in considering improvement in the 
average sense, we are forcibly reminded 
that the total number of exhibitors is 
rather small in proportion to the total 
number of livestock owners. In a 
similar way a few high records of pro- 
duction have earned world-wide atten- 
tion. Such records are merely a few 
peaks in a statistical chart where the 
general average production is low. 
The average yields of milk per dairy 
cow in fourteen prominent countries 
show that the United States is in the 
sixth place, being excelled by the 
Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark, 
Germany, and Canada. Our ability to 
produce scores of cows which yield more 
than 20,000 pounds of milk a year is 
ample proof that our national produc- 
tion of less than 4,000 pounds per year 
per cow, in the last analysis, is a reflec- 
tion of inattention and average lack of 
applied skill. The dairy cow is a good 
example—probably the best—because 
her production is so readily measured 
and because there is so much uniform 
evidence in various countries. Yet the 
same principle and similar facts apply 
to other lines of production. 
Even a superficial consideration of 
the facts mentioned points to the prog- 
gress which livestock raisers in the 
United States would make if next 
year 1,000 persons began thinking 
intelligently about animal breeding for 
every one person who thought about 
it this year. That would bring about 
a condition whereby combined human 
effort in studying and applying laws of 
heredity to livestock breeding would 
approximate the effort being devoted 
to mechanical progress. It would help 
of Heredity 
to attain in livestock evolution a 
great average advance without in any 
way interfering with success in produc- 
ing individual world beaters. 
Without going into detail, the 
economical production of meat, dairy 
products, poultry products, and animal 
power is closely related to breeding. 
The well-bred steer is economical to 
raise because a relatively less proportion 
of feed goes into his maintenance and a 
greater proportion goes into his gain 
in weight. Besides, his quality is 
better and the period of growth to 
profitable market age is shorter. The 
same is true, with some qualifications, 
of swine, sheep, poultry, and most 
other stock. In short, skillful breeding 
results in numerous benefits, including 
economy of production, a quicker turn- 
over of investment, progressive im- 
provement of herds and flocks, and 
better meat food products for con- 
sumers. 
TEACHING HEREDITY TO MANY 
Notwithstanding the efforts of agri- 
cultural colleges and similar agencies 
in the United States, farmers are not 
as familiar with the basic laws of 
breeding as they are with the basic 
laws of mechanics. For every person 
who understands Mendel’s law at least 
a score know the law of the lever. 
This comparison may seem odd because 
the law of the lever appears so much 
simpler, yet it is simpler chiefly because 
civilization has thought in mechanical 
terms. Man owned livestock long 
before he owned a wheeled cart. Bring- 
ing the comparison to modern times we 
may safely assert that 1,000 persons 
understand a carburetor for every one 
who knows a chromosome. 
In the endeavor to stimulate interest 
in heredity and in the basic principles 
of breeding, the United States De- 
partment of Agriculture lately has 
directed attention to the use of pure- 
bred sires for all livestock. Of the 
various methods of animal improve- 
ment the principle of grading up through 
the use of pure-bred males is probably 
the most practical and economical. 
In June, 1919, the department proposed 
