SYSTEMS OF BREEDING 



605 



grading purposes. The failure to make the most of grading is 

 the largest single mistake of American farmers and the most 

 conclusive evidence of shortsighted business policy on the part 

 both of the general farmer and of the breeder of pure-bred stock. 

 Breeders of pure-bred stock largely to blame. When breeders 

 themselves stop trying to set up amateurs, who have little money 

 and less experience, with small herds of two or three females, 

 then the longest step will have been taken toward reform in this 



^^^wmH* 



FIG. 48. Seven-eights blood Angus steers, six months old. Property of Hon. A. 

 P. Grout, Winchester, Illinois 



particular. These pitifully inadequate efforts at breeding are 

 foredoomed to failure, after which the unfortunate farmer, smart- 

 ing under the punishment he suffered by reason of his spasm of 

 enthusiasm for better stock, forthwith and forever curses not 

 only the breed that " let him down," but blooded stock generally 

 and breeders in particular. 



The breeder's business is the production of sires. The profes- 

 sional breeder is a producer of sires, and he should sell males, 

 not females. He should take the amateur kindly into his confi- 

 dence and explain that while he himself is in the business for 

 profit, and his animals are for sale, yet he fully realizes that 



