SELECTION OF BREEDING ANIMALS. 253 



mals will be found which through some flaw, 

 neglect, or error, though highly bred and of 

 high merit, are not admissible for record. Are 

 these to be passed over? Certainly. It may be 

 unfortunate that such animals should be dis- 

 qualified, but it is necessary to the purity of 

 blood that all records should be strictly accu- 

 rate, and men who neglect their cattle must 

 suffer for it. The buyer should strictly avoid 

 such cattle. There are many such in the coun- 

 try. I have spent many days of work trying 

 to straighten out such pedigrees for friends who 

 have sent them to me. Some have only been 

 slightly neglected; others are hopelessly in the 

 class of "lost records." But it is not enough 

 for the buyer to avoid these; 'he must learn 

 what pedigrees of those in the records are ques- 

 tionable, and avoid them also. There are some 

 in connection with which forgeries have come 

 to light; others in early days a not uncommon 

 class have at the end of the pedigree proper 

 that is, after the last dam the pedigree of 

 her sire appended as if it were her pedigree, 

 giving an apparently excellent pedigree to a 

 cow that was really only a half-breed, at least 

 so far as any record goes. When every sort of 

 bad pedigree is sifted out then the residuum 

 may be taken as good. But this sifting process 

 is a slow and difficult one, and the requisite 

 knowledge for. it is only acquired after years of 



