H2 Breading Plants and Animals. 



easy to secure more than three-fourths of great ex- 

 cellence both in beef and in dairy qualities in the com- 

 bined animals. Two times three-fourths is one and 

 one-half, making the combined type more valuable than 

 either of the specialized types." 



A case in part parallel will illustrate one phase of 

 this discussion. In Southeastern Minnesota many 

 farmers grow two crops of seeds at the same time 

 on some fields. They sow two-thirds of a full quan- 

 tity each of the spring wheat and of flax. The com- 

 bined crop often produces more value per acre than 

 either crop would alone. The two kinds of seeds are 

 very cheaply separated by the local grain elevator, and 

 the farmers receive current prices for each grain. In 

 some cases, where the land is weedy, it is impracticable 

 to grow flax alone. Wheat sown with the flax crowds 

 the weeds down, really taking the place otherwise 

 occupied by weeds, and the combined crop in years 

 when the price of flax is high sometimes sells for al- 

 most 50 per cent more than would either crop alone. 

 It is often the "general farmer's" crop. 



It is narrow to argue that the law of specializa- 

 tion is always wisest in cattle, in crops or in the edu- 

 cation of men. We need men of general training as 

 well as specialists. We must not hold our Jersey cow 

 nor our Christmas show steer so close to our eyes 

 that we cannot see the relation of the herd to the entire 

 farm management problem, with its annual balance 

 sheet. 



Experimentation and statistical investigation of the 

 broadest and most thorough-going kind will most like- 

 ly prove that there is room not only for special-pur- 

 pose cattle of the two kinds but for dual-purpose cat- 

 tle as well. All men are not high-grade dairymen and 

 cannot make money out of the highly constituted dairy 

 cow. And broadly conceived and long-continued breed- 

 ing experiments, the writer predicts, cannot fail so to 

 combine milk and meat production in the same breed 

 and for the ordinarv farmer that it will serve to make 



