310 



The Journal of Heredity 



foci of dissemination of venereal di- 

 seases and promiscuity. 



Many collateral data of interest are 

 recorded, such as a list (with biblio- 

 graphical references) of all the traits 

 in man which have been shown or 

 supposed by one or another investi- 

 gator to be hereditary ; a list of in- 

 stitutions and organizations particularly 

 concerned with eugenics ; and tables 

 showing the probable results of dif- 

 ferent types of mating. 



Dr. Laughlin's analysis of the state 

 laws now in force shows that none of 

 them is free from defects, and some 

 of them are definitely bad from the 

 point of view of the biologist. He 

 believes that the right of the state to 

 pass and enforce a eugenical steriliza- 

 tion law is pretty certain ; it is not 

 so much now a question of constitu- 



tionality as a question of policy. It 

 is probal)ly a fair deduction from the 

 facts he presents, that eugenical sterili- 

 zation laws are gradually losing inter- 

 est for the public, and to some extent 

 at least for professed eugenists. They 

 may have legitimate application in cer- 

 tain directions, as among the insane, 

 but for the most part it has come to 

 l)e recognized that persons of a 

 markedly defective type ought to have 

 life-long custody with separation of 

 the sexes. — that it is not fair either 

 to them or to to society to set them 

 free, sterilized or not. and expect them 

 to hold their ovv^n with the normal 

 members of society. But if they are 

 thus in custody, sterilization is quite 

 unnecessary because useless. 



— Paul Popenoe. 



Female Pure-Bred Livestock Shows Rapid Increase 



When farmers adopt pure-bred sires 

 to head their herds and flocks it is not 

 long before the percentage of pure- 

 bred females increases notably. This 

 encouraging tendency toward more 

 rapid improvement of live stock has 

 been l)rought out by the United 

 States Department of Agriculture in 

 the "Better Sires — Better Live Stock" 

 campaign. 



Of a total of more than 200,000 fe- 

 male animals listed by farmers who 

 have agreed to keep nothing but pure- 

 bred sires, more than 35 per cent are 

 of pure breeding. On these farms 

 scrubs have practically disappeared. 

 For the larger animals the reports 

 show that only 2.4 per cent of the fe- 

 males are scrubs and, of course, the 

 males are of pure blood, as that is 

 the basis on which the farms are 

 listed. 



The i)oultry flocks owned by these 

 farmers are jjarticularly well bred, 

 only 1.3 per cent of the female birds 



being listed as scrubs. More than 68 

 per cent of a total of 610,000 birds are 

 entered on the list as standard bred. 

 Among the herds of swine there are 

 very few scrub sows — only 1.1 per 

 cent. Nearly two-thirds of them are 

 pure bred. 



This Federal-State effort to improve 

 the live stock and poultry of the coun- 

 try has now brought in a membership 

 campaign that represents nearly a mil- 

 lion head of animals and poultry. 

 Farmers who have become members 

 have sent in interesting accounts of 

 their experiences in improving their 

 animals and their bank accounts 

 Other farmers who are taking part in 

 the work are invited by the depart- 

 ment to send in their individual ex- 

 periences as well as those of com- 

 munity organizations engaged in the 

 improvement of live stock. Definite 

 facts and figures should be included 

 whenever possible. — U. S. Department 

 of Agrieitlturc. 



