THE QUALITIES OF PEDIGREES. 259 



English work had been founded, conducted and sanctioned by the 

 Short-horn public in both hemispheres. 



If later breeders objected to these pedigrees, or had little confi- 

 dence in the blood of the stock which the pedigrees represented, 

 they had only to let them alone, and select their stocks from others 

 more to their liking. It was no detriment to other preferred pedi- 

 grees that the objectionable ones were there. Their supposed inferior 

 blood could not injure the better blood of others, recorded by the 

 side of them. The idea that an impure pedigree being recorded 

 in the Herd Book, makes it pure, is a fallacy of the sheerest, kind. 

 Every pedigree rests on its own merits or demerits, and by such they 

 are to be judged. 



In this discussion of the admission of past pedigrees in the Herd 

 Books, it is not to be inferred that impure-blooded animals, or grades 

 known and understood as such, should be admitted to record. We 

 simply say in conclusion of this particular topic, that the strains of 

 blood which have been admitted into the English Herd Book are 

 equally entitled to admission into the American. The breeder can 

 either include them in his selection or reject them, a his interests or 

 tastes may determine. 



Having summed up at such length the situation of the Herd 

 Books, both English and American, and the question of their pedi- 

 grees, we may not have allayed a single prejudice against any tribes, 

 bloods, or strains of blood which may exist in the minds of any 

 breeders ; nor have we wished to detract from the merits of others to 

 which they may be partial. We have only aimed to relate facts 

 which may enlighten doubting minds, and satisfy hesitating conclu- 

 sions as to certain bloods and genealogies. If we have made clear 

 matters which have heretofore been doubtful, our aim has been accom- 

 plished ; if not, we can only regret that our labor has been in vain. 



Fastidious critics may object to the remote taints of Hereford and 

 Long-horn blood which may be traced into some of the early Ken- 

 tucky pedigrees ; but when it is recollected that both these breeds are 

 of ancient descent, and at the present day are highly esteemed in 

 England preferred, even, in their own localities, to the Short-horns 

 the i-i28th, i-256th, i-5i2th, or less fraction of these bloods in their 

 veins works no irreparable injury, any more than did the distant taint 

 of Charles Ceiling's Galloway, or the imputed West Highland crosses 

 of nearly a century ago work a deadly objection to many English 

 Short-horns of their own time. We say this not as advocating these 

 outside crosses; on the other hand we object to them; but being 



