664 PRACTICAL PROBLEMS 



If the young that are to show the breeding powers of prospec- 

 tive sires must reach practical maturity much time will be con- 

 sumed in the process. In cattle, for example, the young must 

 be not less than one, and preferably they should be at least two, 

 years old. Practically a year was consumed in pregnancy, and 

 the bull was a year old at the time of service. This will make the 

 prospective sire at least four years old by the time his breeding 

 powers are actually known. This is the age at which most bulls 

 are sold as u ugly and dangerous," a practice which is deplorable. 

 All bulls are ugly or dangerous, or both, that is always to be 

 assumed, but at four years of age they are just ready to enter 

 upon the period of real usefulness, and the records will show 

 that all great sires have done their work not as yearlings but 

 later, after their powers were known. 



Having been tested and proved on a portion of the herd, a sire 

 is, of course, placed in full service, and it is but business sense 

 to make the most of him as long as he is able to continue at its 

 head ; it is even more business sense to begin at once to look 

 for his successor. 



A herd without a head. Herds pass quickly, and a herd with- 

 out a head is doomed to speedy extinction unless a suitable one 

 can be found. A herd in such a condition presents a hard 

 problem to the breeder and owner. He has a lot of accumulated 

 excellence, but it is liable to die before he can use it unless he 

 puts a proper sire at the head without delay. If he cannot do 

 that, in all probability dissipation will follow, which is but 

 another form of extinction. In this event the only practical 

 remedy seems to be dispersion, and this is the real reason for 

 more than one of the dispersion sales that come along each year 

 to arouse our wonder. 



The dispersion sale affords an exceptional opportunity to 

 secure real excellence in breeders, for animals are there offered 

 that ordinarily no purchaser could buy, but these sales are not 

 necessarily for the best interest of the breed ; in many cases 

 it would have been better if the herd could have been kept 

 together. 



Tested individuals, male and female, are the backbone of the 

 herd, and these are what the wise breeder will preserve through 



