32 GUIDE TO DAIRYING IN SOUTH AFRICA 



may hold the championship for best Fries, Ayrshire, 

 or Shorthorn, at one of our principal shows, or his 

 sire may hold a red ticket from some other society 

 and several of his ancestors may be champions on 

 the Continent ; but, while all this is very desirable, 

 it does not necessarily make him a good sire for 

 dairy heifers. His pedigree must show the per- 

 formance at the pail of his female ancestors, for this 

 is far more important than mere prize winning. 



The first point, therefore, in choosing our pure- 

 bred bull, is that he should be from a good dairy 

 cow, not merely judged by shape, but one who has 

 a good record for the year together with a good fat 

 record, for this is a quality which may be transmitted 

 to the heifers through the bull. It has been shown 

 both from experiments and experience that a good 

 female of any class of stock usually transmits her 

 good qualities to her male offspring, so that while it 

 is not necessarily conclusive evidence of inherited 

 excellence, the bull used should never be without a 

 strong family tree of performing dams. 



IF IT IS AT ALL POSSIBLE, WE SHOULD ALSO STUDY 

 THE SISTERS OF THli BULL WE WISH TO USE. This 



means sisters by the same sire. If they are good 

 dairy workers, it is almost a certainty that the bull 

 himself will also have inherited dairy qualities and 

 be a sire of successful daughters. To illustrate the 

 foregoing we cannot do better than give the case of 

 the following bull, Rioter's Exile of St. Lambert, 



