PEDIGREE OR THE ANCESTRAL HISTORY 39 



associations were entirely ignored until matings were studied closely. 

 Boldness of features in males and refinement of them in females 

 undoubtedly attracted the attention of the very earliest breeders, 

 but there were many important associations overlooked until matings 

 became a matter of close study. When they were recognized and 

 seized upon as an agency in selection, there was often a tendency to 

 exaggerate them and to declare that they existed when in reality 

 they did not. 



Pedigree or the ancestral history of the animal is really an 

 outgrowth of the study of matings. When pedigree is not over- 

 estimated, it serves as a valuable agent in helping to direct con- 

 structive breeding. But often when depended upon at all, too much 

 reliance has been placed on pedigree and not enough on individual 

 excellence. Too often it has been assumed that animals identical in 

 pedigree are alike in breeding powers, but we now know that this 

 is not necessarily true. Although two sheep may be twins, and hence 

 alike in pedigree, it does not necessarily follow that they have in- 

 herited equally from each of their ancestors. One may have the 

 stronger dose of inheritance from the ancestors in the sire's line 

 and the other a stronger dose from those in the dam's line ; or, one 

 may inherit strongly from the grandsire on the side of the dam and 

 the granddam on the side of the sire, while the other may inherit 

 in converse manner. Many combinations are possible, and hence 

 the possibility of animals as closely related as twins being unlike 

 in the degree of the development of characters is relatively large. 

 And any breeder makes a mistake who practices selling the better 

 of a pair of twins and retaining the poorer for breeding purposes, 

 thinking that the latter will breed just as well as the former. 



Then, too, pedigree is frequently over-estimated in another way. 

 It is not uncommon for breeders to take a fancy to an animal be- 

 cause a certain great individual of the breed appears in its pedigree. 

 This great animal may be as far removed as great grandparent and 

 the individuals closer up in the pedigree may have been at best only 

 average specimens. If such is the case, the animal in question 

 should be of outstanding merit in order to draw marked attention, 

 and even, then he (in case it is a ram) should not be used exten- 

 sively until his capacity as a breeder is determined from an exami- 

 nation of his offspring. But too often faith in a pedigree con- 

 taining a celebrity, even though he be two or three generations 

 removed, goes far toward offsetting the commonness in an animal. 



