54 BULLETIN 905, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



erations such a family name may mean practically nothing as regards 

 either type or breeding. A judgment based on a family name in the 

 straight male line is no better. The direction of attention away 

 from real values always means deterioration in the end. A fancy 

 for a particular name thus tends to correct itself in the long run, but 

 may work great harm to a breed in the meantime. 



THE VALUE OF PUREBREDS. 



The characteristics of our domestic animals are the result of a 

 very gradual evolution, which has taken place in the course of cen- 

 turies. Even our average scrubs are doubtless superior, in their 

 usefulness to man, to the wild animals from which they are remotely 

 descended. Until quite recently most of this improvement probably 

 came about rather in spite of, than because of, the current beliefs 

 in regard to heredity; one sound principle, the selection of the best 

 for breeding, was, however, widely enough applied to bring about a 

 slow progress. That our livestock are on the average still far from 

 utilizing their feedstuffs to the greatest advantage in producing food, 

 clothing, and work is shown by the achievements of individual ani- 

 mals, usually belonging to one or another of the pure breeds. These 

 pure breeds are the tangible result of a century and a half of conscious 

 effort at improvement. As hope for a more satisfactory livestock 

 situation in the country depends on the further improvement of 

 pure breeds and on the diffusion of their influence through the com- 

 mon stock, it will be well to consider briefly what has already been 

 accomplished. 



The value of the purebreds is clearest in those cases in which the 

 capability of the animals is measured most directly. No one would 

 question, for example, the supremacy of the English Thoroughbred 

 in speed and gameness, a supremacy gained by a long period of the 

 most direct selection. Among the farm animals, the best illustration 

 can be found in dairy cattle, although careful yearly tests of milk 

 and butterfat production are relatively recent affairs. The enormous 

 differences among dairy cows when given the same opportunity have 

 been brought out clearly in a great number of cases. Careful studies 

 have shown that these differences are strongly inherited through both 

 the sire and the dam. The average for purebreds and grades is also 

 much above that for the average milk cow of the United States, 

 which produces only about 4,000 pounds of milk and 160 pounds of 

 butterfat in a year. 



DAIRY CATTLE. 



The great improvement which can be made by better feeding and by 

 the grading up of common cows by the use of purebred sires has been 

 demonstrated in all the many cases to which the writer has seen 



