Animals for Meat Production 411 



that can be regarded as presenting and perpetuating 

 "general -purpose" qualities. Such a type, if found at 

 all, must be sought among individuals. 



The selection of animals for meat production. It is 

 generally conceded that the selection of breeds of the 

 beef and mutton types is essential to the highest suc- 

 cess in the production of meat. This is. true with 

 steers, not because those from the dairy breeds will 

 make very much slower growth than Shorthorns or 

 Herefords, for this does not seem to be the fact, but 

 because the quality of the product is higher with the 

 latter, that is, the proportion of valuable parts is 

 greater and the distribution of fat and lean tissue is 

 more desirable, in the distinctly beef animal. 



A choice from the beef and mutton types and from 

 the various breeds of swine may safely be left to per- 

 sonal preference. Many experiments have been con- 

 ducted with a view of determining the relative capacity 

 of growth of the prominent breeds of bovines, sheep, 

 and swine, and the testimony so far adduced is of a 

 negative character and does not point to any one breed 

 of any species as clearly superior to all others. It is 

 well understood, however, that within every breed in- 

 dividual variations are important and that from a 

 "bunch" of steers it is possible to select some animals 

 superior to the others in their capacity to make profit- 

 able use of food. 



A most important factor in this connection is the 

 relation of age to the profits of meat production. 

 Nothing has been more fully established by experi- 

 mental evidence than that the younger the animals 



