22 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. I917. 



relative to the characters which interest him. But he sees that 

 the stock of some other breeder is measurably better than his. 

 If A is to get his stock up to the B level he must introduce 

 some B blood. This has long been the breeder's procedure, 

 and if done in the right way, it is found to be as successful in 

 practice, as it is justifiable in theory in the light of modern 

 ideas respecting inheritance. The danger in the matter in such 

 a case as this under discussion all turns on the way in which 

 the thing is done. If one feels it to be desirable, for the reason 

 specified, to introduce "new blood" let him by all means do it 

 gradually, and not swamp the whole stock with the new germi- 

 nal combinations all at once. For if he does he may destroy 

 in this way at one blow results which have taken years of 

 careful breeding to build up. 



THE SUPERIORITY OF THE PUREBRED. 



The necessary, intrinsic expense involved in breeding and 

 rearing a purebred animal is no more than that involved in 

 breeding and rearing a grade or a scrub. The end product 

 is worth a great deal more in the former case than in the 

 latter, on the average. These considerations being true, and 

 I think they cannot be successfully controverted, it would seem 

 to be the most obvious of sound business principles to keep and 

 breed only purebred, registered livestock. Yet the propor- 

 tionate number of farm animals which are purebred must be 

 very small indeed. 



The chief reason for the 'relatively small proportion of pure- 

 bred animals is fairly evident. Most farmers keep animals 

 solely for their immediately productive or useful cjualities. 

 They are in no true sense breeders and make no attempt to 

 realize the additional profits which would accrue from com- 

 bining a breeding business, on however small a scale, with a 

 producing business. The farmer of the sort mentioned is prone 

 to compare in his mind the productive cjualities of the best of 

 his grades with the poorest purebreds he has ever seen or 

 knows about, to the detriment of purebred animals in general. 

 He is then apt to take the general position that it would not 

 pay to buy purebred animals for a foundation stock to breed 

 from. 



