212 CATTLE-BREEDING. 



But by choosing a series of Short-horn sires 

 a herd of grades may readily be built up in a 

 few years scarcely inferior for beef and milk 

 and butter to that grand old breed; so by the 

 use of a series of Jersey bulls native stock may 

 be made famous butter-makers; and so on. 

 What the grade-breeder needs, then, is to use 

 improved bulls, and from only one breed. 



The question naturally forces itself on us 

 here : How long is this to be continued ? Is 

 there no period at which an animal ceases to 

 be a grade and becomes a pure-bred beast? 

 Truly the mysteries of breeding are great, but 

 the mysteries concerning the words "pure- 

 bred," " thoroughbred," etc., are past finding 

 out. 



The product of the first cross will contain 

 one-half native blood ; of the second cross, 

 one-quarter ; of the third, one-eighth ; of the 

 fourth, one-sixteenth; of the fifth, one-thirty- 

 second. By the fifth cross, as will be readily 

 seen, the native blood will be reduced to a 

 very small percentage, and as the pure blood 

 dominates in giving form and character it 

 must assuredly be of very little weight in de- 

 termining character. In consequence some 

 foreign societies admit animals to record in 

 their publications which show five crosses of 

 recorded sires. Others place what is meant to 

 be a requirement of absolute purity as the 



