24 DOMESTIC ANIMALS, DAIRYING, ETC. 



ishes and deformities due to accidental causes are not transmissible, 

 and do not therefore render the individual animal unfit for breeding 

 purposes. In this list may be placed unsightly scars from barb wire 

 and other fences or some other accidental cause, blindness due to ac- 

 cident, fractures imperfectly united, etc. The greatest possible care 

 should, however, be exercised in deciding these matters, and where 

 possible, it often is the best policy to select for breeding purposes 

 animals that are in the best of health and free from every form of 

 blemish or unsoundness. We often hear it said in this connection 

 by farmers of limited means that they cannot afford to go to the 

 expense of securing a better class of breeding stock than they now 

 have. But when we consider that the expense and care of rearing 

 to the market age an inferior animal is practically the same as that 

 of a valuable one, the question will naturally arise can they afford 

 to raise the inferior one at all? This question, however, is for each 

 breeder to decide for himself. 



Uniformity in Breeding. There has been a general lack of 

 uniformity and consistency in the breeding operations in many local- 

 ities where somewhat spasmodic attempts have been made to improve 

 domestic animals through breeding. Many horse owners have at- 

 tempted to improve their horses by what is known as the process of 

 grading-up ; which is mating Thoroughbred stallions with the mares 

 of common stock or mixed breeding until the blood of the pure breed 

 predominates over that of the native stock. Without doubt every 

 step taken in this direction has been well intended, but the desired 

 results are rarely secured unless this method of breeding is persisted 

 in ; that is, by using sires of the same breed for successive generations. 

 Many breeders have commenced right, but through various causes 

 have failed to continue sufficiently long the good plans which they 

 commenced. Unless the plan is carried far enough so that the pure 

 blood predominates in a large degree over that of the native stock 

 or of mixed breeding, the best results will not be realized, except 

 possibly in rare instances. 



Cross-bred Sires Unreliable. The offspring of two animals of 

 distinct and different breeds is termed cross-bred. In a cross-bred 

 animal we have distinct and different breed tendencies and prepo- 

 tencies that have been merged together, and the identity of each dis- 

 tinct breed has been lost. These breed tendencies and prepotencies 

 in the cross-bred animal may be said to be mixed rather than 

 blended; consequently the cross-bred sire lacks the well fixed pre- 

 dominating tendencies that we hope to find prepotent in pure bred 

 sires. While this cross-bred animal may possess fine appearance and 

 individual excellence, yet it should not be expected that he will be 

 able to transmit his own individual excellence. Cross-bred sires should 

 not be used for breeding purposes, as such animals have no prepo- 

 tency in the particular line for the production of a specific breed 

 character. 



Grade Sires Objectionable. In the process of grading-up, the 

 first progeny from the mating of a pure bred sire and the native 

 or scrub mare is a half-blood ; if the half-blood is mated with a pure 



