Pedigreed Animals and Plants. 27 



are to be slaughtered and the percentage of lean meat 

 and of fat to bones, and of lean meat, fat and bones to 

 live weight, etc., are to be determined and recorded. 

 Some observations already made along this latter line 

 lead to the belief that by sketching the areas of fat, 

 lean and bones on the cut surfaces of certain carefully 

 made commercial cuts; or by making photographs, a 

 practically accurate record can be secured of the per- 

 centages of lean meat, fat and bones. The measure- 

 ments of areas of parts in the cross-sections of meat are 

 easily made by means of an instrument called a plani- 

 meter, which measures areas no matter what may be 

 their form. Experiments have been planned to con- 

 struct a conversion table for reducing measurements 

 made as above to a percentage basis, that they may be 

 more easily utilized in pedigrees. A careful record 

 shall be made of the number of pigs each sow farrows 

 and of the number she rears, and of important facts 

 concerning the death of any young. Her milking abil- 

 ity shall be determined where practicable, also her dis- 

 position in the care of her brood. All facts concerning 

 each pig shall be recorded by the breeder, 

 old, color or other markings and any peculiarities which 

 are especially noteworthy. 



The average records made in the feeding trials 01 

 the shotes comprising the progeny of each dam and of 

 each sire shall constitute the breeding measure or re- 

 cord of that parent. These/ records can be designated 

 by the term, "centgener records/' a term recently adap- 

 ted to a similar use in plant breeding. Centgener is 

 made up of the words centum, a hundred, and genera, 

 generation, or, practically, many of one generation Here 

 it may mean the average of one generation, or one 

 year's get of a sow, or a boar, grown under similar 

 conditions. 



Discussion of this proposition and especially of fam- 

 ilies which might be worthy of investigation as possi- 

 bly useful in connection with such an experiment would 



