210 CATTLE-BREEDING. 



of grading up follows. Others use a bull of im- 

 proved stock for several generations, and then 

 select a bull of their high grades to breed from. 

 In this way they put off the day of reckoning, 

 for a bull of three pure crosses is often a good 

 breeder ; but his get in native cows will have 

 only half as much improved blood as he has, 

 and will show it, in most cases, in the herd. 

 The use of grade bulls is, then, a dangerous and 

 condemnable practice, and one to be carefully 

 shunned. The grade cows are to be kept and 

 constantly crossed and re-crossed, generation 

 by generation, with improved bulls. The prac- 

 tice, therefore, which is followed in some of the 

 agricultural shows, of offering prizes for grade 

 bulls for breeding purposes, and for grade herds 

 and for grade bulls and their get, are of injury 

 rather than advantage to the agricultural inter- 

 ests of the country. The encouragement of 

 raising grade steers and cows is to be highly 

 commended; not so the bulls. Every farmer, 

 on the contrary, should be encouraged to steer 

 every bull as soon as calved, and to maintain 

 and increase every bit of excellence gained by 

 systematic and uninterrupted use of a high- 

 bred bull. 



And though we saw in the foregoing chapter 

 that cross-bred animals of different high-bred 

 breeds often possessed great merit, as in the 

 case of the great prize-winning steer at the 



