FAEMEKS" INSTITUTES. 493 



has the power to transmit his character to his progeny and therein prove 

 his superiority over his rival the "scrub." 



It is not necessary that everyone should breed pure breds when four 

 or tlve top crosses will give for all practical purposes as good results. 

 Yet we should rememljer that every cross should be from a pure-bred 

 sire. All improvement through him must come, and the sooner we ac- 

 cept the fact the sooner we will have taken a step in the right direction. 



Good females are hard to Imy. Therefore it becomes necessary to 

 have the young females from the pure-l)red sires and see that each suc- 

 ceeding cross i.s an improvement over the former. 



Next in importance to the pure-bred sire in the improvement of live 

 stock is a quality that does not exist in the animal to be improved, neither 

 is it present in a satisfactory degree in the live stock owners of our 

 county. 



I humbly believe, could I develop this one quality to my satisfaction, 

 I could, in a few years, more than douI)le the valuation of our live 

 stock. That one admirable quality is tenacity of piu'pose — stick-to-it- 

 ive-ness. 



Our breeding operations remind me of what Senator Harris said 

 when speaking of the advent of pure-bred horse sires. He said: "Rec- 

 ognizing the fact that they were of better type for special purposes 

 than the home stock, preached to by the press, advised by wide-awake 

 institute lecturers and college professors, farmers commenced to 'breed 

 up.' Every man started right. He picked his best females and mated 

 them with a better sire. His intentions were good. But he grew tired 

 of his work. 



"The tlrst progeny was often disappointing — not the ideal he had 

 in mind. A few top crosses were made; then the owner, after a visit 

 or two to the fairs, decided to try a new experiment and mated the 

 females of the first crosses to a sire of a different breed. 



"Commencing with a Percheron, he was not content to make five 

 top crosses in order to obtain practically pure-bred Percherons. He fell 

 in love with a Clydesdale, Shire, Belgian or with a trotting horse, a 

 coacher, thoroughbred or even a jack, and this new cross gave no better 

 satisfaction than the first." 



This sounds ludicrous; but, nevertheless, it is an exact illustration 

 of the breeding operations now in vogue to too great an extent in La- 

 grange County. 



This trait is one to be gotten rid of, because it is one of the greatest 

 drawbacks to improvement. It is not the result of ignorance. But in 

 our haste to ac(]uire riches we are prone to junip in and out of breeds 

 according to the mutabilities of the market. 



When sheep are high, many sell horses and cattle and buy sheep. 

 When beef is high some dairymen are prone to use beef sires, and vice 

 versa, thus ruining both the characters and acquirini: neither a b<^ 



