96 My Little Farm 



to put years behind me in making my observations 

 and ascertaining the results generation by genera- 

 tion ; but the experimental value of these genera- 

 tions is obviously more instructive than that of 

 any number of animals in one or two generations. 

 Little or nothing can be shown until the calf by 

 the pedigree shorthorn is produced out of the cow 

 bred from native stock and the pure red poll. I 

 could not indulge dogmatism from an experiment 

 confined to an average of fifteen to twenty 

 animals and only two generations. We have more 

 reliable data when we go back six generations, 

 even with only a single cow at the start ; but 

 what I rely on most of all is the accuracy with 

 which the combined characteristics are reproduced 

 every time in everything but horns. A neighbour 

 had a calf by one of my bulls, and I did not know of 

 it until I saw the animal among his herd, when I 

 was able to pick it out at once. Only one in any 

 number can be the best, and, for breeding pur- 

 poses, twenty right animals on thirty-five acres, 

 even of bad land, may readily produce better 

 results than five hundred wrong animals on a 

 thousand acres of the best land anywhere. Other 

 things being equal, the chances are in favour of 

 the five hundred, but other things are not equal 

 when the five hundred are taken unknown, and 

 every one of the twenty against them has an 

 ascertained history. In view of the facilities 

 afforded by the Department I see no reason why, 

 with time and skill, a man may not become a first 

 class cattle breeder on less than a ten pound 



