THE BREEDING OF LIVE STOCK 269 



give an animal which is seven-eighths pure, a fourth cross an 

 animal fifteen-sixteenths pure, and so on. 



By following out the foregoing principles it is clear that in 

 a very few generations the offspring will have a very small 

 fraction of the original scrub blood in it. But according to 

 the rules of live-stock record associations in the United States 

 animals of such parentage can never be registered as of pure 

 blood. If one wishes to have pure-bred animals there are 

 now so many such animals to be had at reasonable prices 

 that it is not advisable to go through the long process of 

 grading up to get them. However, the use of pure-bred males 

 is always to be advised for grading up. 



When one purchases pure-bred animals for starting a herd 

 he should give some attention to their pedigrees. A pedigree 

 is a statement of the ancestors of an animal. It gives the name 

 of the animal and its herd-book number, a description of its 

 color, tells its sex, the name of its owner and breeder, and the 

 date of its birth. Then follow the names of its sire and dam, 

 with their herd-book numbers, and sometimes the grand-sires 

 and grand-dams, running back several generations. One who 

 is purchasing stock with pedigrees should seek to know some- 

 thing about the individual quality of the animals in the an- 

 cestry, for while they may have been pure-bred they may also 

 have been poor specimens of the breed. This is especially 

 true of dairy animals. A dairy cow may be of the purest 

 breeding and yet be a poor producer of milk and butter-fat. 



In selecting foundation stock it is best to choose mature 

 animals or at least animals which have already produced 

 young. The mature animal has its form fully developed, so 

 that there is less danger of getting an animal of poor form. 

 If a sire has already produced progeny one can form some 



