586 PRACTICAL PROBLEMS 



have contributed most to their breeds have often been incon- 

 spicuous as individuals and, unfortunately, often have been dead 

 long before their real service to the breed was known and 

 recognized. 



Need of the actual breeding test. So valuable is the excep- 

 tional breeder, and so impossible is it to know him (or her) in 

 advance by the ordinary methods of judgment, that only the 

 actual breeding test is reliable. The only safe method is to 

 select the herd of females of high fertility and uniformly excel- 

 lent breeding record, and then, knowing the female side by long 

 and intimate experience, 1 select the sire for his performance 

 record in getting young. 



The tests should first be made with a few well-known, and 

 therefore fairly aged, females. Too much cannot be said against 

 the practice of putting a new young sire at once into full service 

 in the herd, no matter what his individuality or his pedigree. 

 However promising, he must be subjected to the actual test, 

 and after having proved his breeding powers with known females 

 he should be used to the utmost as long as he will breed success- 

 fully, and not discarded because of loss of bloom, decline in 

 form, or even for the acquirement of an evil disposition. It is 

 from the proved patriarchs and from the grandmothers of the 

 herd that real excellence will come, and the real- value of proved 

 breeders, male or female, is beyond computation. 2 



Install the successor early. It is never too early to seek a new 

 head to an established herd. Proved sires are seldom for sale, 

 and the only recourse for the breeder is to prove his own ; 

 indeed, what he needs is a sire that will produce well with his 

 females. 



It takes much time and often many trials to find a worthy 

 successor to the head of the herd. Putting it off too long, and 

 a feeling of fancied security, are the two causes of leaving a 



1 A complete breeding record should be kept of each female separately. See 

 chapter on " Animal Breeding." 



2 The author has a mass of data collected from hundreds of breeders, from 

 which it appears that young bulls are commonly preferred because they are cheaper, 

 because their period of service is longer, and because they are more manageable. 

 It appears too that when a " test " is made it is commonly not upon old and known 

 cows, but upon heifers. 



