118 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



LAW OF SELECTION FOR IMPROVEMENT OF DAIRY CATTLE. 



(A more extended and carefully prepared presentation of this subject 

 by Mr. Gregg will be found following the regular report of the conven- 

 tion.) 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : — 



I have not attended public meetings for many years without 

 fully appreciating what the conditions are in a prolonged ses- 

 sion. If you are not tired, I believe your chairs ache. I have 

 some things in mind growing out of thirty-five years' experience 

 that I believe many dairymen in Illinois should hear. I cannot 

 at this time give the address which I had prepared for this occa- 

 sion, but will make a few preliminary remarks. Provided the 

 Secretary of this Association is willing, we will furnish for the 

 coming annual report of the Association, the subject matter that I 

 would like to have presented upon the platform. This can be 

 read by you at a later time. Then you will have time to carefully 

 consider it and give it that attention which I believe the matter 

 deserves. 



There are some preliminary things to the address which 

 may follow this short talk, that I would like to establish in your 

 minds. What I now shall say ought to be received by every 

 practical and well read breeder of dairy cattle. First of all, I 

 wish to correct a misunderstanding that some of you received 

 yesterday, when I made the distinction that there was such a 

 thing as an animal having no quality as a dairy animal, even 

 though it might have a paper pedigree. A long experience has 

 taught me that I have no use for a sire unless he has quality. 

 If a dairy sire has quality, then he will have two pedigrees. One 

 of them will be made by man ; it will be a matter of record ; you 

 can get an abstract of it; it will be largely valuable in pro- 

 portion as that record is authentic and shows the productiveness 

 of the ancestry of the animal which is so pedigreed. The second 

 pedigree is made by nature. Then it will have the marks upon 

 its body which come by the law of heredity. When the ances- 

 tors of that animal are animals such as you wish to perpetuate, 

 then these ancestors by the law of nature, will mark the body 

 after a certain pattern, such as w^e may be able to make plain to 



