THE HALF OF THE HERD— THE BUCK 107 



sum up: so excellent are the breeds already existing 

 that no one, especially an amateur, can hope to improve 

 them to any great extent by cross breeding, but by a 

 careful selection of the best within any given breed, one 

 will make a rapid and dependable advance. 



There is another very practical consideration against 

 cross breeding. The American public characteristically 

 prefers a pure bred animal with its formal pure bred 

 registry papers. If buying a grade they prefer it to be 

 as high a grade as they can obtain, graded up consistently 

 from one type. For example, grading up from native 

 stock by the use of three successive Saanen bucks will 

 give one in the third generation a registered seven- 

 eighths doe wlio will probably be a very creditable rep- 

 resentative of that breed. If, howevei', one lias used first 

 a Saanen buck, then for his offspring a Toggenbiu'g 

 buck, and again for liis offspring an Anglo-Nubian buck, 

 we will have in the third generation an animal that can 

 be registered as a half blood only, and that will show an 

 amazing combination of color and type, although, to be 

 sure, as a producer she may have made very ci-editable 

 progress. Desirable and important as this last point is, 

 the cross bred, many colored doe will not sell for more 

 than half the price of the straight bred, seven-eighths 

 Saanen. From the point of view of a goat breeder who 

 is trying to make his living, this fact must be kept 

 steadily in mind. 



