PRINCIPLES OF LIVESTOCK BREEDING. 49 



low fecundity, and excessive fatness. This show-ring type was not 

 considered the best utility type itself, but was the best for improving 

 the coarse, slowly maturing, common stock of that time. 



INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE AND LD7ESTOCK JUDGING. 



As a general rule the most direct methods of estimating the useful 

 qualities of animals are the most satisfactory as a basis for selection. 

 Until relatively recently it was not practicable to make accurate 

 tests of the milk and butterfat production of large numbers of dairy 

 cows. The experience of dairymen with regard to the type of cow 

 which had proved to be most productive was the best guide in select- 

 ing breeding stock. At present the records made in a cow-testing 

 association or in attaining advanced registry in a pure breed give a 

 direct basis for selection, and the indications from conformation are 

 being relegated to a decidedly secondary place, although knowledge 

 of the approved dairy conformation is still of use in picking out the 

 more promising cows from common stock or from among untested 

 purebreds. 



Similarly, the trap-nest record is coming to be more important in 

 finding the best egg-laying strains of poultry than the approach to 

 a standard type. Wool production is of course judged directly. 

 Among Standardbred trotters and pacers speed, of course, has been 

 the all-important qualification from the first and has been fixed much 

 better than conformation. During the longer history of the English 

 Thoroughbred both speed and conformation have been fixed to a 

 greater extent than in the Standardbred, but the prime basis for 

 selection has always been success on the race course. The judging 

 of heavy horses by conformation and action is probably as direct 

 as is practicable. In the meat breeds of cattle, swine, sheep, and 

 poultry study of the conformation gives the best indication of the 

 actual quantity and quality of the meat which can be got without 

 killing the animal and also gives indications as to early maturity. 

 Detailed descriptions of the approved types can be found in bulle- 

 tins on the various breeds of livestock. 



There are constant attempts to find a short cut to correct judg- 

 ment through a correlation between some easily observed charac- 

 teristic and the useful qualities. The development of the so-called 

 escutcheon of dairy cattle was at one time very widely accepted as 

 an indication of milking capacity, although the supposed correlation 

 appears to have no basis in fact. In the case of poultry there are a 

 number of ways, without taking trap-nest records, of picking out 

 the hens which have been laying consistently. In breeds with yellow 

 shanks those with the palest color have been proved to be the better 

 layers. This is, however, really a more direct test than it seems, 

 since the yellow color of the yolk of the egg is the same as that in 



