134 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



and delusive hope ! If we are to arrive at a certain perfec- 

 tion in the ojffspring, both parents must be perfect. This law 

 holds good in regard to all animals, not excepting man. This 

 certain transmission of qualities will be readily seen to be of 

 great benefit in the rearing of our domestic animals if prop- 

 erly taken advantage of. If we wish to raise a good dairy, 

 we should breed our best milkers to bulls regularly descended 

 from a line of ancestors eminent for that quality ; and, in this 

 region, we should breed from no others, for the product of 

 the dairy is the most important agricultural product to which 

 our cattle contribute. Even if we wish for beef or work, we 

 are not aware that the possession of a good milking pedigree ( ?) 

 detracts in the least from those qualities ; for which reasons 

 breeders who are raising thoroughbred stock to supply the 

 wants of New England with breeders, should begin to un- 

 derstand, that everything in their line is heloiv par that does 

 not possess the power to transmit excellence in the dairy. 

 This doctrine, or law of transmission, is a two-edged sword, 

 and will cut to the quick in the wrong direction if the least 

 impurity of the blood remains in our breeding stock. This is 

 the doctrine of the thorough-breeders. We are all acquainted 

 with what is denominated breeding back, that offspring are as 

 likely, or more so, to put on the appearance of the grandsire 

 or granddam, even farther back, as of the father or mother, 

 especially if they descend from a race of long-established 

 character. Thorough-breeders, beware that you do not sow 

 tares with your wheat, for your tares, you say, are more likely 

 to take root than the wheat. 



We would like to put in our protest against the action of 

 our State Board in regard to grade bulls, while thoroughbreds 

 are not sufficiently numerous to be in the reach of all. As 

 long as experience proves high grades vastly better to breed 

 from than mere scrubs, and while good blood, as it is called, 

 is not in reach of a vast majority of our farmers only through 

 the grades, it seems to us, at least, premature for them to take 



such action as they have. 



David Mo wry, Chairman. 



