270 DOMESTIC ANIMALS, DAIRYING, ETC. 



individuals will conform in a measure to strictly beef form, others 

 quite markedly to dairy form, with all gradations between these two. 

 The indications of blood, as seen in color, will undoubtedly attract 

 the attention of the casual observer more readily than other features. 

 In other words, the presence and admixture of so many colons in 

 common herds indicates that Shorthorn, Holstein, Jersey and less 

 frequently Hereford and Ayrshire blood has been freely admixed. 

 The seriousness of this lack of uniformity in breeding, quality, color, 

 form, etc., is not fully appreciated. For the past ten or fifteen years, 

 with one or two exceptions, the Chicago market has been topped by 

 a certain breed of cattle sold in car load lots. The reasons for this 

 are found in the word uniformity. They have been uniform in size, 

 color, form, finish, and quality ; in fact, as much alike as so many 

 peas ; you see one and you see them all. This prime requisite of uni- 

 formity can never be secured through mixed breeding. The man 

 who offers for sale nineteen good steers and one inferior one bearing 

 undesirable color, is at a great disadvantage ; the scrub steer is ever 

 under the nose of the prospective purchaser, and offers him a strong 

 pretext for lowering his bid. 



A large percentage of the best cattle fed today, by good feeders, 

 are secured from western stockyards ; the feeders of these cattle claim 

 that it is difficult to secure feeding cattle of good quality and uni- 

 formity at home ; one has to purchase the culls along with the good 

 ones in order to get any. Close inspection of consignments of cattle 

 is not necessary to convince one of their lack of breeding ; the drover 

 who picks up a few market cattle here and there, until a load or two 

 is made up for shipment, is the man who gathers together the motley 

 combination representing the large aggregate ; the man who breeds, 

 buys and feeds a good car or more of steers usually markets them 

 himself. 



Some Causes of Lack of Breeding in Cattle. The indiscrimin- 

 ate admixture of the blood of the various breeds has been one of the 

 most direct causes of the production of inferior stocks. This has not 

 been restricted to the breeds within the beef and dairy classes, but 

 includes admixture of the blood of the two classes. With the rise 

 in prices of dairy products the common cows have been bred to 

 dairy bulls; with depreciated values for dairy products, these same 

 cows and their female progeny have been bred back to beef sires, and 

 so on. On the other hand, there are plenty of instances where herds 

 possessed of cows of a small type, producing a small flow of rich milk, 

 nave been bred to a bull of a larger breed noted for heavy milk flow, 

 and vice versa. There are too many animals in our yards today 

 saved from bulls bred to females for no other purpose than to freshen 

 them again. 



The lack of good breeding among our cattle today is not due to 

 lack of introduction of good blood at an early date. 



Live Stock Improvement Not Difficult. Questions of breeding 

 are generally regarded as being obscure, intricate and extremely 

 difficult, except to those skilled in the art through long years of train- 

 ing. It is true that we are obliged to look back upon the achieve- 



