BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



HEREDITY AND THE DAIRY COW. 



PROF. J. M. TRUEMAN, STORRS, CONN. 



When I realize what a complex subject I have agreed to 

 talk about, and think how little is definitely settled concern- 

 ing it, I almost regret promising to undertake the task. 



My excuse for appearing before you to discuss this subject 

 is the fnct that we are all deeply interested in everything 

 that pertains to breeding the dairy cow. 



Heredity is the " genetic relation between successive gen- 

 erations." ^ We are familiar with the proposition that all 

 men are created free and equal, and yet Dr. C. B. Davenport 

 in his recent book on " Heredity in Relation to Eugenics " 

 says that " all men are created bound by their protoplasmic 

 make-up and unequal in their powers and responsibilities." 

 In other words, every animal born, whether man or beast, 

 is made up of the characters of its ancestors. Heredity does 

 not mean that a new independent organism has inherited 

 certain characters from its parents, but means that the 

 " organism and the inheritance are identical." IN^othing new 

 has been made ; only the characters that belonged to tbe 

 previous generations of that particular race have appeared 

 in another individual. Thus we see that every organism, 

 as Dr. Davenport says, is created bound by its protoplasmic 

 make-up. It cannot free itself from the race to which it 

 l)elongs. 



This does not mean that every individual will be an exact 

 reproduction of any one or two ancestors. Although no new 

 characters are introduced, there is certainly a great diversity 

 in the numbers that are present and in the proportions in 



* Heredity, p. 6, J. Arthur Thompson. 



