LIVE-STOCK AND DAIRYING. 3*9 



given us our different types of animals, for climate, 

 food and care have played an important role. There 

 are other terms used in live-stock operations, such as 

 pure-breeds, scrubs, cross-breeds and grades, which the 

 student should understand. A pure-bred animal is 

 one whose sire and dam belong to the same breed. A 

 scrub is an animal whose ancestors belonged to no dis- 

 tinct breed. A cross-breed is one having for its par- 

 ents animals belonging to two distinct breeds. A 

 grade is an animal having a pure-bred animal for one 

 parent and a scrub for the other. There are more 

 scrubs in this country than there are pure-breeds, cross- 

 breeds and grades combined. 



Grading up Live-stock. Millions of dollars could 

 be added to the profits of farming in the United States, 

 if the people would pay more attention to the breed- 

 ing, care and feeding of their live-stock. For exam- 

 ple, the average milk cow of the United States pro- 

 duces but 150 pounds of butter a year, scarcely enough 

 to pay for the feed she eats. It is well known that 

 the pure-bred parent has more influence in determin- 

 ing the form, color and useful qualities of the offspring 

 than a scrub parent, or in other words, the pure-bred 

 parent is called " prepotent." By taking advantage 

 of this fact the farmer can, by continued use of pure- 

 bred sires of a certain breed, soon build up a herd of 

 grades that for all practical purposes are nearly as 

 good as pure-breeds. The young of a pure-bred male 

 and a scrub female is a half-blood; the offspring of a 

 half-blood female and a pure-bred male is three- 

 quarters pure; the next generation of this system of 

 breeding would be seven-eighths pure, or a high grade. 

 This cannot be done, however, by using a sire of one 

 breed at one time, and a sire of another breed at an- 

 other time. It is unwise to use anything but pure-bred 

 sires, as the characteristics of grades or cross-breeds 

 are unstable and improvement is uncertain. 



EXERCISE. Are any of the farmers of your vicinity making an ef- 

 fort to build up their stock with a pure-bred sire? What is the aver- 



