ESTABLISHING A FLOCK AND IMPROVING IT 463 



of pure breeds, especially when they are pedigreed and a 

 record kept of the pedigrees, is not to be commended. 

 Their value is such in a large majority of instances as to 

 make such crossing unwise. The individuals of the breed 

 in the pure form are usually worth more than the progeny 

 obtained from crossing them. But there may be instances 

 when such crossing is admissible. Superior specimens are 

 sometimes obtained thus for exhibition purposes. Such 

 crossing as may be necessary to meet exhibition require- 

 ments is legitimate. When drafts of ewes are made from 

 the mountain breeds with a view to send them to the 

 market, it is usually profitable to cross them with males 

 of some larger breed after they have been put on more 

 productive pastures and to sell them and their progeny 

 after they have been made ready for the block through 

 high feeding. The same is true in some instances of 

 Merino ewes. 



The attempt to improve through crossing where 

 herds are involved should not usually be carried beyond 

 the first cross. The result from a second cross and also 

 from succeeding crosses are frequently disappointing. 

 This arises from the tendency to reversion in such lines 

 of breeding. The tendency to reversion is the outcome 

 possibly of antagonism in the dominant properties in the 

 leading blood lines for supremacy. 



In seeking improvement through grading, an out- 

 cross may be used in some instances with advantage, and 

 the same is true in some instances of breeds. But the 

 nature of the outcross in the two instances is different. 

 In the first instance it means introducing a sire of a dififer- 

 ent breed; in the second, it means introducing a sire of 

 the same breed but of a different strain of blood and usu- 

 ally from an outside herd. Action in the first instance 

 may result in improving size and wool production, should 

 these fall below a certain standard. But in such instances 

 it will usually be wise policy to return again to the sires 

 belonging to the breed from which they were chosen pre- 



