278 CATTLE-BREEDING. 



when possible, the capacity of the animals them- 

 selves, both for richness and quantity of milk, 

 but also of their ancestry. This is a practical 

 every-day matter that is too regularly looked 

 after to be other than a matter of course. Here 

 there is a convenient standard, the conformity 

 to which may be readily tested. Both branches 

 of the dairying business have reached a point 

 in their development of tests of excellence 

 which the owners of breeds kept for other pur- 

 poses may envy but can hardly hope to imi- 

 tate. There is no failure among these milk and 

 butter producers to recognize the further fact 

 that the bulls used on their cows must come 

 from dairy families of merit in the line sought 

 to be developed, whether butter or cheese pro- 

 duction. In other words, they clearly recog- 

 nize the principle that one sex holds in abey- 

 ance, but transmits to the descendants in the 

 third generation, the secondary sexual qualities 

 of its ancestor of the opposite sex. 



These qualities are all, then, equally applica- 

 ble to both sexes, and must be sought equally 

 in each. There are besides certain qualities 

 chiefly or solely applicable to the bull, and as 

 the bull plays so large a part in the herd they 

 are of the first importance. It becomes neces- 

 sary, therefore, to take up somewhat in detail 

 some of the important qualities to be sought 

 in the bull to head the herd. 



