142 EVOLUTION OF BRITISH CATTLE 



table will show the grades of stock each grade 

 of bull should get with each grade of cow : 



High Middle Low 



grade grade grade 



stock, stock, stock. 



% /o * 



High grade bull with high grade cows should get 100 

 ,, ,, middle grade cows 50 50 



,, ,, low grade cows 



Middle grade bull with high grade cows 



}> ,, middle grade cows 



,, ,, low grade cows 



Low grade bull with high grade cows 



,, ,, middle grade cows 



,, ,, low grade cows 



100 

 50 50 



25 So 25 



50 50 



100 



50 50 



100 



But the greatest difficulty of all perhaps is that a 

 bull's grade is not known till he is at least five or 

 six years old. How is this to be overcome? 

 The pioneers adopted two methods ; they kept 

 their bulls till their grades, so to speak, were 

 known Hugh Watson's Old Jock won the 

 sweepstakes at the Highland Society's Show at 

 Perth when he was ten years old and they bred 

 from closely related animals. The former method 

 was safest ; the latter placed the chances on the 

 right side, for there is a higher probability of the 

 same characters being carried by near than by 

 distant relations. But, just as the Aberdeen- 

 Angus breed has been gradually made hornless, 

 so, by constantly selecting the breeding stock 

 the bulls are the most important from high grade 

 cows a whole breed could be raised eventually to 

 the highest milking capacity. 



If the hybrids between high grade and 



