PRINCIPLES OF LIVESTOCK BREEDING. 



59 



muscle, while the purebred, after a more rapid early growth, matured 

 earlier and turned to fattening with greater facility. There was an 

 important difference in the amount of feed just necessary to keep the 

 animals from losing weight, the scrub requiring about 19 per cent 

 more feed for this purpose. The purebred, moreover, was able to 

 consume and utilize a larger amount of concentrated feed above his 

 maintenance requirement than the scrub, the same difference, it 

 will be recalled, as that between a good and a poor dairy cow. 



These advantages may appear impossible to reconcile with the 

 lack of difference in gains or cost per pound of gain. The explana- 

 tion is that the purebred packed more food value into a pound of 

 gain. A pound of his meat contained a great deal more fat and 



Fig. 18.— Yorkshire boar, illustrating the bacon type of hog. 



practically as much protein, but very much less water. Thus a 

 pound of meat from the purebred was not merely of higher quality, 

 because of the superior marbling with fat, but really contained 40 

 per cent more food value. Thus under the same conditions a pound 

 of meat from a properly finished purebred is no more comparable 

 with a pound from a scrub than is a pound of rich milk with a pound 

 of low-testing milk. 



Thus the important qualities which breeders have developed in the 

 breeds of beef cattle are the blocky conformation with the greatest 

 development of the more valuable cuts and the- smallest amount of 

 waste ; the low maintenance requirement which results from a placid 

 disposition; the rapid but soon completed growth in bone and muscle, 

 in which large size is combined with early maturity; and, finally, ease 

 of fattening. 



