86 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



ply making milk for the market, and buying his cows, that 

 may be a wise proposition ; but as Professor Shaw has been 

 speaking to those of us who are not only making milk, but 

 also doing our own breeding, I do not believe that is a wise 

 thing, nor do I believe it is wise even under the conditions 

 of the farmer who is producing milk for the market, if he is 

 intending, as a good many do, to sell the cow after one year's 

 service. It won't make very much difference, but for one 

 I would prefer to use the milk from animals who have a 

 reasonable amount of exercise and a large amount of air, 

 even if they don't look quite so slick and smooth and don't 

 give quite so much milk. I think in the long run wc would 

 be the gainers by it. 



In the matter of transmission, spoken of by one or two, 

 and particularly by Mr. Harwood, — in regard to the fact 

 that your very large producers seldom transmit it to their off- 

 spring, and, as he has stated, these producers are supreme 

 producers under forced conditions, — what we are to con- 

 sider is the question of transmission from exceptionally good 

 animals, who have not been forced, but have been carried along 

 under normal conditions. In such cases I believe we can 

 look for the transmission of those qualities, frequently magni- 

 fied, extended in the following generation. If, in the case 

 of the trotting horse cited, that horse is driven to the utmost 

 capacity, I do not believe, as does Mr. Keed, that you are 

 likely to produce just as good and better animals than them- 

 selves. I believe it has been taken out of them on the race 

 track or in the milk pail. You cannot expect, even with a 

 vacation, that they will recuperate and will give you nearly 

 the same individuals they would have given you under normal 

 conditions. 



And I am a firm believer in the doctrine of prepotency. 

 I have owned a good many bulls, first and last. The first one 

 I ever did own was a pure-bred Jersey, who was so pre- 

 potent that to-day — and his work has been done for several 

 years — to-day you can almost trace the progeny of that bull 

 in general characteristics, and the character of the milk pail, 

 and the butter fat. The prepotency was there to an extent 

 that I have never seen it elsewhere. 



