Hover: Finding the Prepotent Sire 
GROUP E 
Related to Sheet Anchor 2934 
Ledyard Bay. 
Charmante’s Rose King. 
Triple Champion. 
Glenwood’s Reputation. 
Glenwood’s Main Stay 16th. 
Beda’s May King. 
GROUP F 
Related to Imp. Sir Champion 58 
Guydette. 
Rinaldo. 
Buckthorn. 
GROUP G 
Related to Imp. Fernwood Lily 1468 
Starlight’s Excelsior. 
Fernwood of Homestead. 
GROUP H 
Miscellaneous 
Imp. Lord Mar. 
Jewell’s Independence. 
Masher 63. 
It is readily apparent that in the 
larger groups above we have the most 
important representatives of what may 
properly be regarded as.the Guernsey 
families. Thus we have the “May 
Roses,” the ‘‘ Mashers,”’ the “Governor 
of the Chenes,”’ the ‘‘Glenwoods,”’ and 
the “‘Sheet Anchors.”’ Groups F and 
G, while perhaps not commonly recog- 
nized as families, if we judge from the 
animals listed and others that may soon 
have three ‘600-pound”’ daughters, may 
properly be so regarded. The miscel- 
laneous sires might be regarded as 
representing potential families requiring 
only the intelligent and consecutive 
effort of breeders to establish them. 
Breeders must depend upon intelligent 
selection for whatever breed improve- 
ment is to take place in the future. 
Intelligent selection presupposes on the 
part of the breeder: (1) An appreciation 
of individuality as related to performance 
and other desirable characters; (2) 
a knowledge of ancestry in relation to 
breeding capacity for performance, pro- 
lificacy, constitutional vigor, etc. It 
follows, therefore, that a knowledge of 
the prepotent strains in the various 
breeds, whether it be for performance, 
- prolificacy, constitutional vigor or other 
characters, becomes an invaluable aid 
in selection. 
There are three systems of breeding 
iw 
represented in the ancestry of the above 
listed sires, viz., outcrossing, inbreeding, 
and line breeding. From these pedi- 
grees it would be difficult to adduce 
sufficient evidence to prove the super- 
iority of any one system. *Group F 
offers a good illustration of a strain 
probably made prepotent by close 
breeding, 7. e., line and inbreeding. 
The dam of Guydette was an inbred 
cow. Rinaldo is the son of Guydette 
from a closely related dam. The May 
Roses have also been in and line bred 
to avery considerable extent. Theo- 
retically close breeding by rendering 
character more pure, ought to give a 
more prepotent strain, and this theory 
seems to hold true in practice for a 
number of notable sires. However, it 
must be observed that some of the best 
sires in the breed are outcrosses between 
several of the leading families as in- 
stanced in the case of Charmante’s 
Rose King. 
The Guernsey, in common with all 
pure bred cattle, is prepotent over the 
ordinary stock of the country. This is 
an important asset to the progressive 
farmer because he can, by the utiliza- 
tion of good purebred sires, render his 
herd in a few years nearly, if not in fact, 
the producing equivalent of a purebred 
herd. The writer has observed a large 
number of calves by Guernsey sires, 
born to very ordinary cows of mixed 
breeding and in nearly every case the 
offspring showed very definitely the 
outstanding Guernsey characters. 
The greatest value of the advanced 
register comes through its revelation 
of great producing cows and sires of the 
breed, and, through them, of the pro- 
ducing strains. It thus aids in the only 
way man probably has for permanently 
improving the breed, 7.e., by selection 
in breeding. There are, however, some 
weaknesses in the system. In the first 
place, the best cows are repeatedly 
retested for still higher records. Since 
the test period is twelve months, the 
period between consecutive calving is 
prolonged to such an extent as materially 
to decrease the offspring of the best 
cows. Furthermore, the rich feeding 
to which such cows are subjected 
probably interferes with the reproduc- 
