170 A HISTORY OF SHORTHORNS IN KANSAS 



The pedigree being merely the names of the an- 

 cesters of the animal pedigreed, it follows that 

 the pedigree will be good if the animals that go 

 to make up the pedigree were good. If they were 

 not good it is folly to call the pedigree good no 

 matter how fashionable or high priced it is. Re- 

 versing this proposition, if a good Shorthorn in- 

 dividual is from good Shorthorn ancestry up to 

 ninety per cent or more of its blood lines, no pos- 

 sible argument could be produced that would 

 make any sane man really believe that such pedi- 

 gree was not a good one. To call it bad would be 

 to cast aside the common use of the English lan- 

 guage and to call the pedigree good if the imme- 

 diate ancestry consisting of thirty animals were 

 good, bad and indifferent would be equally 

 inconsistent, even though the animal sold for 

 thousands. 



The Value of the Pedigree. The commercial 

 value of all pure bred and registered stock above 

 the price such animals would bring as grades lies 

 in the pedigree. This being the case it behooves 

 every one breeding Shorthorns to make the pedi- 

 gree good and that means first of all select a good 

 cow descended from good ancestry, then use only 

 an extra good bull from extra good ancestry. A 

 few hundred dollars more or less paid for a bull 

 is not so much of a factor in the case as is the 

 merit and ancestry of the bull himself. One can 

 buy a cow with a good pedigree but unless the 



