100 LIVESTOCK ON THE FARM 



With all this in mind, it may readily be seen what a power 

 for good is the animal that has all the right factors. Any 

 man who can combine all such factors in the right way has a 

 license to be an animal breeder of the very first rank. He 

 has a very valuable heritage. 



BREEDING PRACTICE 



Everyone who knows anything about livestock is more or 

 less familiar with the different phases of breeding, namely, 

 ordinary breeding, line breeding, out-crossing, close breed- 

 ing, in-breeding, cross breeding, and grading. Any kind of 

 breeding means the mating of sire and dam so as to produce 

 offspring. When the breeding of the animal is mentioned it 

 takes into consideration all of the animals in the pedigree or 

 all the ancestors on both sides of the pedigree or of sire and 

 dam. 



Ordinary breeding consists of the mating of animals of 

 similar characteristics and as good as can be had, without 

 very much if any relationship between sire and dam. 



By line breeding is meant breeding animals along the same 

 general line, with some relationship between the ancestors. 



Out-crossing refers to the mating of animals not at all re- 

 lated and sometimes also different in type and characteristics 

 but of the same breed. 



Close breeding is a degree closer than line breeding and is 

 sometimes defined as the mating of cousins. 



In-breeding is the mating of animals of the closest relation- 

 ship, such as mating parent and offspring or brother and sister. 



In cross breeding, animals of different breeds are mated. 



By grading is meant the use of a pure-bred sire on dams that 

 are not pure bred. Animals produced by the first one or two 

 crosses are called just grades. When a pure-bred sire has been 

 used constantly and for three or more generations, the offspring 

 are still grades, but may be called high grades. 



The first offspring from a pure-bred sire and scrub dam is 

 half pure bred. The next cross, or when this so-called half- 

 blood is again mated with a pure bred, will be three-fourths 

 pure, the next seven-eighths, the next one fifteen-sixteenths, 

 and so on. 



