32 VARIATION 



many score cards for pure-bred animals ! Now the facts are that 

 a cow is kept for what she can do, and there is nothing inherent 

 in mere color that is indicative of her ability to convert feed into 

 either milk or meat. She is therefore neither better nor worse 

 for her color except as it is an index of blood lines when she is 

 to be used as a breeder. 



So striking are color differences, however, and so distinct are 

 our preferences, that we instinctively follow our prejudices in this 

 respect, quite regardless of more important considerations, until 

 the whole fabric of breeding is interwoven with "fancy points" 

 in the shape of color markings that greatly confuse the breeder 

 in his attempts to select individuals for breeding purposes. 



To-day the majority of prize-winning shorthorns are either 

 roan or pure white. Twenty-five years ago no breeder would 

 have dared to show a roan animal, and if a white calf had been 

 dropped in his herd he would have destroyed it at once and kept 

 the matter as secret as possible, so strong was the red color craze 

 following the American worship of Bates cattle. This craze, 

 which was always groundless, cost the breed and their admirers 

 dearly and checked by a decade or more its progress upward. 



Probably of all substantive variations color is, excepting among 

 flowers and ornamental plants, of the least consequence to man ; 

 yet the prejudice is with us, and the breeder who expects to sell 

 his product must reckon with it. He should do it intelligently, 

 however, realizing fully that individuals vary greatly in inherent 

 quality quite independently of color. 



In general it may be said that substantive differences, though 

 not so easily detected, are yet of far more significance to the 

 farmer than are those of either form or size. 



