CHAPTER VII 



PEDIGREE BREEDING 



THE expression "Pedigree" as it is used in the cattle world has 

 come to include a great deal. It implies that an animal with a 

 pedigree has been bred from ancestors who for several genera- 

 tions have been selected as breeding-stock for special reasons, 

 and with certain definite objects in view, and that, consequently, 

 it has itself inherited and is capable of transmitting these 

 qualities to its offspring; further, it implies that the animal's 

 name, together with those of a certain number of its forebears, 

 have been registered in a recognized record or official herd-book. 

 The early improvers of the modern breeds of British cattle died 

 without making any official register, and the methods of crea- 

 tion of our present breeds of cattle may be said to have begun 

 with the work of Robert Bakewell (1725-1795); but it was not 

 till 1822 that the first official register of cattle the Coates's 

 Herd Book was published. The careful mating of parents 

 and the selection of their offspring with a view to their imparting 

 certain valuable qualities had, however, been practised from 

 the first; this principle, it is generally believed, constituted the 

 whole essence of the practice of Bakewell in accomplishing his 

 wonderful improvement. 



Caution is necessary in speaking of the methods of Bakewell 

 and the other pioneers, for we have little authoritative record 

 of how they carried on their important operations. The pro- 

 fessional historian has not deigned to spend much time in 

 collecting information for the mere enthusiast about such 

 humble creatures as cows, calves, and bulls. The fragments of 

 knowledge we possess have been picked up here and there, and 

 either gathered together by an agriculturalist untrained in 

 methods of historical research or, more frequently, left as 

 scattered allusions in the works of historians who cared little 

 about agriculture and still less about cattle. This is very strange, 

 for historians realize that the improvement in agricultural 



