PEDIGREE BREEDING 85 



industry that one is driven to the conclusion that the preference 

 is based upon some sound economic reason. 



I have looked at the question from many points of view; 

 I have discussed it with nearly every class concerned in the 

 cattle industry, and I have had the good fortune to meet very 

 many successful commission agents, breeders, feeders, and meat 

 salesmen. I have, however, still to find proof of what constitutes 

 the excellence that gives the Shorthorn this great predominance 

 over all other breeds. I have formed a theory of my own, based 

 upon careful observation, but I have not hitherto had an oppor- 

 tunity of putting it to the test. Research which is to establish 

 a working certainty sound enough to be applied to scientific 

 breeding is a costly matter and demands a man's whole time. 

 Hitherto the money and therefore the time has been wanting. 

 Until some rich person, or body of persons, supplies the necessary 

 funds, research is impossible. It should, however, be obvious 

 that until such characteristics as those of the Shorthorn are 

 discovered and recognized, no advance in the practice of 

 breeding is likely to take place; for the scientific discoveries 

 relating to the laws which govern inheritance will not, until 

 then, be made available to the pedigree breeder. 



The last considerations, though they greatly concern pedigree 

 cattle, are so general to the industry that they must be treated 

 in the next chapter. I would conclude this part of my subject 

 by an appeal to the breeders and those who influence the 

 breeders of pedigree cattle to give to the home-market the same 

 attention that they have paid to the overseas demand. No one 

 who has watched, as I have done, the overseas trade for a 

 quarter of a century can fail to appreciate the skill with which 

 the customers' demands have been met. No one with any love 

 of bur countryside could wish that that trade should be neglected 

 in the smallest degree. But it is wrong, as has so often been 

 done, to leave our tenant-farmers either to select the misfits 

 from the foreign market or to fall back upon mongrels that are 

 a disgrace to any country. So great an evil do I consider 

 this latter practice that I am distressed whenever I hear of 

 one of our home breeds of cattle being "taken up" by the 

 exporter. I am still Scotsman enough to realize the financial 



