1890.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 139 



We fail to realize the full force of this law, because of its 

 necessarily imperfect application. It is a law of such po- 

 tency that, if perfectly applied, and all the conditions of its 

 application could remain uniformly the same through a long 

 succession of generations, it would undoubtedly result in a 

 perfect transmission to offspring of the characteristics of the 

 parents. 



While in many departments of stock-breeding this power 

 of transmission has been carried to a high degree of perfec- 

 tion, yet in no department has it become as marked as it 

 would have done under more perfect conditions. Perfection 

 in this must be the work of time ; and the business life of any 

 one man is too short, however perfect his practice, to attain 

 it, while any change, as from father to son, is morally sure to 

 result in a change in essential conditions. This power of 

 transmission will become a fixed characteristic of a family or 

 race, just in proportion to the skill of its breeders, time 

 employed, and the quality of the stock used in the outset. 



Pedigrees. 



A pedigree, of whatever length, is of value only as it con- 

 veys a correct knowledge of the character of the breeding of 

 the stock described, and gives assurance that its progenitors, 

 for many generations, were of the same t3'pe. A mere 

 genealogical pedigree is of no value whatever, — one which 

 recounts the names only of ancestry. All animals, however 

 ill-bred, have unrecorded pedigrees, extending back to their 

 original progenitors, though no one can give a diagram of 

 them, and it would be of no value if we could. It is that 

 mistaken idea, that long pedigrees ensure perfection, which 

 has led to so many disappointments in the purchase of blooded 

 stock. This early false impression has cost me hundreds of 

 dollars. I have owned stock with long pedigrees, which, 

 from inbred defects, was utterly worthless for dairy purposes. 



It is of the utmost importance that the breeder of grade 

 stock should use none but well-bred sires ; those of " strong 

 blood," as it is often expressed, those which have not only 

 the external marks of perfection, l)ut the habit also of trans- 

 mitting them. He must never be tempted to use a grade 

 sire, however perfect he may be in external appearance. 



