ANIMAL BREEDING 667 



by photographs, if possible, and by any measurements, weights, 

 achievements, or facts of any kind that may later assist the judg- 

 ment in basing conclusions as to selection. The record of the 

 service males should be especially full and complete. 



2. A full description of every individual offspring of every sire 

 of the herd as compared with his own description and with that 

 of the dam, such a series of descriptions to constitute the 

 breeding record of the sires. 



3. A breeding record should be opened with every female of 

 the herd, showing date of service or services, xiate of birth of all 

 offspring, and some name or number which may serve as an 

 identification mark for every individual produced, whether living 

 or dead. 



If these three lines of data are kept, the breeder will have not 

 only an accurate personal description of every animal constitut- 

 ing the herd and every one produced by the herd, but he will 

 also have a complete breeding record of every animal, both male 

 and female, and the two together will show not only how much 

 each animal has produced but also what was its quality. When 

 breeding operations have been carried on after this plan for a 

 number of years, such records will constitute a mine of informa- 

 tion which no memory can supply with sufficient accuracy to be 

 dependable. Trusting to recollection is dangerous, and the fleet- 

 ing impressions formed of certain individuals become rapidly dis- 

 torted and unreliable as time passes, how rapidly no one knows 

 until he has been confronted a few times with his own record 

 made first hand and upon the spot. These records are essential 

 to the best breeding and absolutely indispensable to the man who 

 may succeed to the management of the herd later on. 



Breeders too often proceed as if they expected to live forever, 

 or at least as long as the herd exists, whereas we must look 

 forward to the time when an established herd shall outlast the. 

 lifetime of its founder, and perhaps two, three, or more genera- 

 tions of men shall be involved in shaping the policies of its 

 breeding, all of which is possible only when the most perfect 

 records are kept. 



In connection with private herd records the following is 

 appended as the plan in actual use by the late Honorable 



