20 



five crosses of thorough-bred lilood for a bull, and four for a cow 

 are sufficient to place them in the ranks of thorough-bred stock ? 



If neither of these plans should meet tlie aj^probation of our 

 Society, will it not publish, in the next Schedule of Premiums, 

 some definition of a thorougli-bred animal ? only let it be so 

 clear that no judge hereafter will have any excuse for giving the 

 premium to other than a thorough-bred bull, on any plea of ig- 

 norance. 



In judging of the bulls entered for premiums this year, your 

 Committee were governed in their decisions by the authority of 

 standard Herd Books, or by the knowledge of direct importa- 

 tion, as in the case of the Holsteins. 



Sir John Sinclair, in his "Code of Agriculture," says "the art 

 of improved breeding consists in making a careful selection of 

 males and females for the purpose of producing a stock with few- 

 er defects and with greater perfections than their parents : in 

 which their mutual properties shall be combined and their mu- 

 tual faults corrected. 



The objects of improved breeding, therefore, are to obviate de- 

 fects and to acquire and to perpetuate desirable properties ; 

 hence, when a race of animals have posessed in a great degree, 

 through several generations, the properties which it is our object 

 to obtain, and any tendency to produce unwished for properties 

 has been extirpated, their progeny may be said to be well bred, 

 and their stock relied on. 



Wise words these though written more than fifty years ago ; 

 but as much to the purpose as if spoken for the first time to- 

 day. 



The object of improved breeding is not merely the coupling 

 of a cow with a bull, but the making a careful selection for the 

 purpose of perpetuating good qualities and eradicating defects. 

 The art of breeding is the understanding how to do this. 



