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122 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



the mule always resembles his sire (the ass), but he will get his 

 temperament from the dam. The draft mule is always bred 

 from a heavy, slow going, patient draft mare, but will have the 

 conformation of the ass, which gives him the mule formation. 

 Evei*y southern man knows that when he wishes to breed a pair 

 of road mules, he must use a hot blooded mare. Here we have 

 the conformation obtained from the sire as before, but the tem- 

 perament comes from the dam. Now, take these two principles 

 together and you have the foundation for the great law that must 

 be observed in the selection of a sire to aid in improving the 

 dairy qualities of our herds. 



With these two rules, let us ever bear in mind the great 

 errors which have been committed in the past in the breeding of 

 our domestic animals. Wq will inherit more or less of the evils 

 of these errors by this law of reversion that I have referred to. 

 We now enumerate some of these evils which are matters of com- 

 mon knowledge to us all. 



First : The color craze in the breeding of Jersey cattle has 

 cost some of the best blood that ever was produced in the Isle of 

 Jersey. In order to get the solid color, some of the finest of the 

 dairy stock of that island were sacrificed because of a little patch 

 of white, more or less, upon the body. The Holstein cattle losi 

 much quality in their successful change from the old red and 

 white stock to the black and wdiite of today. The belted cattle 

 have obtained their belt of white about the black body by the 

 sacrifice of everything which did not possess that color mark. 



Second : One of the strongest illustrations of the ignorance 

 which has moved some breeders was obtained by me at the 

 Chicago Fat Stock Show a few years ago. I was introduced 

 to the expert judge of beef cattle, a man who had come from 

 England in order to pass judgment upon our stock at Chicago. 

 He was a typical Englishman — a man of wide experience. I 

 was introduced to him as Uncle Sam and he to me as Johnny 

 Bull. This familiar introduction enabled us to soon become 

 quite well acquainted. During our conversation I asked him the 

 question, why it was that the English and Scotch breeders had 

 bred the feather on the legs of the Shire and Clyde horses. He 



