98 THE GUERNSEY BREED 



cultural society, grave errors have been made in approving good 

 looking animals of inferior milking quality and of indifferent breed, 

 while rejecting others which in all essential respects were superior. 

 It was held that a check would be given to real progress if the judg- 

 ment of breeders as to their own stock were to be superseded by that 

 of strangers, and if admission to an official Herd Book was made to 

 depend on conformity to the fancies of a few individuals. It was, 

 therefore, resolved that any such method of selection of breeding 

 stock would be delusive and injurious, and that the best course was 

 to establish a general Herd Book for the Island of Guernsey, based 

 simply on the principles on which those of Great Britain and Amer- 

 ica are founded', and, therefore, open to all stock which might be 

 proved to possess the qualification of purity of race. From such a 

 register it was believed that breeders would be able to select the 

 strains which they deemed best suited to their purpose, and pur- 

 chasers would not be misled by any alleged superiority beyond what 

 they had the means of verifying. Rules for the formation of such a 

 Herd Book were approved' by the meeting, and a committee was ap- 

 pointed to superintend its preparation. The first part is now sub- 

 mitted to the public. 



"The committee will only ndd that the experience, even of the 

 first year, has shown that owners do not enter their stock indiscrim- 

 inately, but that in nearly all instances they limit themselves to those 

 which they consider to be their best. If the pedigrees given are short, 

 it does not indicate that care has not been bestowed on breeding 

 hitherto, but arises from the fact that it has not been customary to 

 keep a written record. So also the notice of honors obtained by the 

 progenitors is frequently omitted, for the double reason that, not 

 being greatly esteemed, no note has been preserved of them, and that, 

 as the stock exhibited at the island shows have not been even distin- 

 guished by names till within the last two years, it would not be possible 

 to ascertain with certainty whether honors have been awarded or 

 not. But the committee feels confident that the Herd Book now 

 inaugurated' will lead to the general preservation of more accurate 

 records of breeding, and to the fuller recognition, both in the island 

 and elsewhere of the value of strains of which judicious breeding has 

 already in numerous instances laid the foundation. 



"The colors of the Guernsey breed include white, red and black, 

 in any mixture and shade, except roan, no instance of which is 

 known to have occurred. Brindle is not uncommon, the nose may 

 be either white or black." 



The volumes of this "General Herd Book" show that the 

 work was incompletely done, and without doubt more rapid 

 advancement was made in the improvement of the breed when 

 this book was discontinued and all the effort put into one 

 book. The American Guernsey Cattle Club ceased to recog- 

 nize the General Herd Book in 1902. 



Because of the fact that no card index or other alphabet- 

 ical list of the animals registered in the Herd Book was kept, 

 it was impossible to tell whether any name chosen by a breeder 

 for a calf he was offering to register had previously been 



