Breeding Special Purpose Cattle. 115 



best their blood is usually made up of zigzag crosses 

 minds of practical men the hope that the dual or gen- 

 eral-purpose pure-bred type is a possibility in a dis- 

 tinct breed or breeds. If this hope can. be realized by 

 the production of cattle that will pay better than the 

 specifically developed beef and dairy types the world 

 will be blessed. 



I have yet to hear anyone deny the commonly-made 

 statement that there is occasionally an individual cow 

 among common and Short-horn cattle which success- 

 fully combines large dairy value with large value as 

 a dam of steers. Extreme advocates of the special 

 types urge that, while this may be true, breeding to 

 the two purposes brings opposite physiological forces 

 into antagonism and we cannot breed that constancy 

 of heredity required in pure-breds. Breeders of beef 

 cattle, though they are devoted to the highly specialized 

 beef type, are not usually so insistent as breeders of 

 dairy cattle that there can be no middle class. The 

 statement commonly made that milk and beef are such 

 opposites physiologically that they are antagonistic is 

 not on a very firm experimental foundation. That good 

 milking capacity when in milk and good beefing ca- 

 pacity in the feed-lot are successfully combined in cer- 

 tain individuals is to me absolute proo'f that this ques- 

 tion is at least worthy of investigation before any defi- 

 nite laws are laid down for practice. 



Certainly not only those who are always hunting 

 for the impossible in combined excellence, but many 

 of our most substantial farmers and breeders believe 

 in the animal which combines good beef and good 

 dairy qualities. Not a few who set themselves up as 

 teachers insist that dual-purpose cattle have usually 

 appeared in a very weak position because of their hav- 

 ing no acceptable plan for breeding cattle of this class. 

 Some of these plans are too weak to need opposition, 

 even though they may have emanated from sources 

 to which people are inclined to look for better things. 



Breeding bulls of high beef type on cows of high 



