THE SELECTION OF A SIRE. 229 



has a long line of ancestors on both sides, of decided dairy performance he 

 very sensibly, we think, counts that worth more than anything else. We 

 would suggest, however, that the development of the navel is a more unerring 

 indication of constitution or natural vitality than the deep barrel. In men and 

 animals both we often find specimens of wonderful vigor and endurance who 

 are not marked by large development of the barrel. But we never saw such an 

 instance where the construction of the navel and surrounding walls of the 

 abdomen were weak. Every physician has noticed that where the umbilical 

 cord at birth was small and weak the child is correspondingly low in vitality, 

 and usually it is hard to raise such a child. This shows that the mother failed to 

 endow the foetus with sufficient vitality because the channel through which 

 that vitality is conveyed was weak and imperfect. A strong umbilical devel- 

 opment is, in our judgement, the surest indication of vital force and endurance, 

 or, as it is generally called, constitution." 



V. E. Fuller : 



" If breeders and dairymen would only realize the truth of the adage that 

 'the bull is half the herd,' and how thoroughly in the course of years the 

 blood and characteristics of the bull impregnate and dominate any herd wheie 

 he is used, there would be more care in the selection of a breeding bull for 

 use in our herds. 



"Let me make a suggestion, first of all, to those who are not raising thor- 

 oughbred herds, but are rather in the dairying business for the profit of the 

 cows either at the pail or the churn. Use none but a thoroughbred bull. Re- 

 member that the bull should impress upon his get either 'his own likeness or 

 the likeness of an ancestor,' but unless a bull be extraordinarily prepotent, he 

 more often impresses upon his offspring a likeness of a remote ancestor rather 

 than give any fixed characteristics from himself. 



"Therefore, in using any bull it does not follow that his daughters will have 

 the characteristics of his dam the chances are that his get will partake more 

 closely in resemblance and characteristics to a more remote ancestor than the 

 dam of the bull. It therefore follows if there be any impure blood in the sire 

 used, there is a chance that his get may partake of the 'impure' characteristics 

 and that he will not impress upon his get the sought for qualities to the same 

 extent as if he were pure. If you seek to produce milk and milk only, without 

 regard to what is contained in it, use a bull of a breed whose characteristic is 

 to give a large flow of milk, but let it be one of the milking breeds. If you are 

 seeking to produce animals for the butcher's block, breed from a pure bull of 

 one of the beef breeds. 



"To those who are seeking to breed cows for the dairy, whether they be 

 thoroughbred or whether they be grades, I would say, remember the adage 

 that 'like produces like, or the likeness of an ancestor.' See that the dam of 

 your bull that you propose to use has the characteristics, in either milk giving 

 or butter making, and in form and size of udder, that you desire to see perpet- 

 uated in your herd; that his grandams are possessed of like characteristics and 

 so back by at least four generations. If the female ancestors be possessed of 

 those characteristics you seek to have perpetuated in your herd, then you may 

 be reasonably assured that the bull will, when coupled properly with desirable 

 dams, produce you satisfactory offspring. 



"To those using what is known as an 'inbred sire,' namely, one inbred to a 

 common ancestor on the part of both sire and dam, bear in mind that while the 

 bull so inbred will probably have the ability to fix the characteristics of the 

 common ancestor to whom he is inbred, he will as surely fix and exaggerate the 

 undesirable features of the ancestor as he will desirable ones. Therefore it is 

 especially necessary to see that the ancestor to whom he is inbred, or his 

 descendants through whom your bull traces to him, be not possessed of charac- 

 teristics that you do not desire to perpetuate in your cows." 



