FARMER'S CYCLOPEDIA OF LIVE STOCK 



for denoting the apparent superiority 

 of the sire over the dam. 



We may now mention a few cases 

 which have been considered instances 

 of prepotency. Darwin refers to a 

 black greyhound which gave his color to 

 the puppies whatever the color of the 

 bitch. The male Manx cat usually trans- 

 mits the tailless character. Prepotency 

 does not belong exclusively to the sire. 

 It is equally conspicuous in the dam if 

 she be pure bred and the sire a cross. 

 When sire and dam are both pure bred 

 but of different breeds the young inherit 

 their qualities about equally from both. 

 The blending of characters can never be 

 predicted in such cases and the results 

 are seldom satisfactory. 



ing propensity when crossed with ewes 

 of other breeds. The Angus bull may 

 produce polled calves from the first cross 

 with horned breeds. Likewise the black 

 and white patches of the Holsteins seem 

 to be dominant characters and it is dif- 

 ficult to breed them out after they have 

 once been mixed in the blood. But it 

 is not necessary to multiply examples 

 for they must be familiar to every 

 breeder. 



Hybridization ma y also at timer be- 

 come an important factor in variation. 

 It is quite impossible to predict the 

 characters which will appear in hybrids. 

 Sometimes the characters of the ances 

 tors, even remote ones, appear. In othej 

 cases the characters of the parents blend, 



Fig. 21 — BERKSHIRE OF 60 YEARS AGO BEFORE PURE STOCK WAS REQUIRED 



Prepotency of breeds — Prepotency 

 may be an individual or a racial trait. 

 Certain individuals of a given breed 

 may be especially prepotent. The char- 

 acters of certain breeds may be more 

 firmly fixed than those of another breed 

 so that in a cross the one breed pre- 

 dominates over the other. The so- 

 called Apalousa horse of Oregon and 

 Washington transmits circular spots to 

 the foal and these spots reappear for 

 many generations without the further 

 admixture of the original blood. Short- 

 horn bulls are quite prepotent in trans- 

 mitting their racial characters. The 

 Dorset ram transmits the early breed- 



thus producing progeny intermediate be- 

 tween them or something quite new and 

 not resembling either parent. When the 

 characters of the sire and dam do not 

 blend, but are inherited side by side in 

 varying proportions, then the young will 

 resemble the sire or dam according as 

 one or the other set of characters proves 

 to be dominant. Hybrids between zebus 

 and cattle and between the bison and cat- 

 tle partake almost equally of the char- 

 acters of both parents. In the numer- 

 ous crosses which Professor Ewart pro- 

 duced between the mare and zebra 

 stallion, and zebra mares and male ass 

 "some of the hybrids in make and dis- 



