SELECTION OF BREEDING ANIMALS. 291 



ger of breeding from them increases in a rapid 

 ratio. 



Aside from these aggressive dangers there are 

 tendencies to inferior usefulness exhibited by 

 many animals which impair or destroy their 

 usefulness in the herd and point them out as 

 proper subjects for the pruning-knife. Thus 

 we find among cows often those that are shy 

 breeders, that are slow to come in heat after 

 calving, that rarely stand till served several 

 times, that occasionally lose their calves, and in 

 the end show a very poor account of profit and 

 loss. Others are never able to breed a calf as 

 good as themselves and are a constant source of 

 disappointment to their owners. So, too, with 

 the bulls. How frequently do we hear of bulls 

 being uncertain breeders. Few seem to realize 

 how much actual loss comes to the breeder 

 from an uncertain bull. In ten years' time 

 almost a whole year will be lost; that is to say, 

 one-tenth less calves will be produced in the 

 herd.. And yet men will go on using a bull 

 which will rarely ever get a cow with calf at 

 the first or even the second or third service. So 

 some bulls are hopelessly bad breeders. Some 

 very fine bulls which I have known have been 

 simply miserable as breeders. Some men do 

 not seem to grasp the fact that the bull is the 

 cause of whole crops of mean calves, and will 

 go on using him and speculate why their luck 



