SIGNIFICANCE OF PEDIGREE. 191 



examine page 72 : but one correctly recorded ped- 

 igree. (Sea Bird 847 j is a heifer.) The following 

 page is no better, nor is page 75 an improvement. 

 Page 76, again, contains six poor to one good pedi- 

 gree, etc. etc. Are the cows any better recorded 

 in this volume? We examine page 110, and do not 

 find a single perfect pedigree. Page 111 is scarcely 

 better : but one pedigree, outside of the imported 

 animals, that can be pronounced good. A little 

 search shows page 136 without a single perfect ped- 

 igree, and we find many others with but one each ; 

 and not yet have we found one perfect page in this 

 volume. 1 



Having now briefly noticed the deficiencies of the 

 American and Canadian Ayrshire Herd Book, a few 

 reflections concerning the significance of pedigree 

 may be in place. 



A pedigree is more or less complete according as 

 the animals are traced backward through several 

 generations, with or without omission of any of the 

 ancestry. If we know the earlier parents, and are 

 unable to trace the connective link that ties them in 

 relationship to the animal under consideration, then 

 the missing links are so much out of our knowledge of 

 the animal ; we come just so far short of acquaintance 

 with the antecedents of our animal. The importance 

 of knowledge of the antecedents of animals from 

 which we desire a succession, depends on the circum- 

 stance, in great part, that all animals are what they 



1 Since these strictures were penned, the authors of the present book have in- 

 augurated, at the request of breeders, the " North American Ayrshire Register," 

 which is already far advanced on an apparently successful course. 



