ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 113 



I will admit if I avoid inbreeding, have got to sell that bull, 

 and he may sell an animal for beef that would be worth a thous- 

 and dollars. If no other way of avoiding it except your w^ay, 

 then your way is right. But certainly in any part of this country 

 it would be easy for six to get together and use the same breed 

 and then exchange their bulls, or sell them and avoid the danger 

 of inbreeding. It is a serious matter even with grade cattle. 

 To illustrate, one man has Shorthorns and sold them because 

 he could not go right along inbreeding without ruining the. herd. 

 A man may be an exception like Gentry, but it is a mighty dan- 

 gerous business and should be kept in the hands of a skillful man 

 not the average dairyman for he will come to grief. 'He better 

 turn his hand to something he knows about than run the risk of 

 inbreeding. 



A : — Skilled men don't know any more than the rest of us. 

 As to the chances, a man knows perfectly well the strain of 

 animal he is handling and expects some trouble. I think a 

 breeder of pure bred animals of ten or fifteen years experience 

 may well pause before going to inbreeding, but I would take 

 the chance. If I found the sire was not giving good calves, I 

 would get rid of the sire. If I found he was I would not be in a 

 hurry. 



Q: — If you lose the majority? 



A : — I don't expect to lose the majority. 



Q : — I lost all but one. 



A : — The first case I ever heard of. 



Q : — He's got to get the bulls. 



A: — He can see the herd. You can find out the milking 

 qualities as any other animal. We must try to avoid this tre- 

 mendous waste of pow'er. We are not going forward in our 

 breeding, gentlemen. We must continue to breed that bull until 

 we know what he is doing. 



Mr. Gurler: — Mr. President I would like to ask a question 

 on a subject that has not been touched upon. We are within 

 forty miles of Chicago a milk producing territory and this sub- 

 ject is a very vital one. It is a test of the practicability of your 

 method and within sixty miles of Chicago we have land valued 



