ILLINOIS DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 197 



the old herd at home, but why? One or more cows and a bull is 

 all we need, and if we do not have the bull and do not feel we can 

 afford to buy him alone, let us get our neighbors to help buy him 

 for their use as well as ours. In the breeding proposition there is 

 great gain. It is one instance where one and one make three, or 

 perhaps four or more, instead of two. There is no reason why 

 anyone of us with a herd of cows which are any good whatever 

 cannot have a herd as good as can be found in the country, so far 

 as production is concerned, if we have the firm determination that 

 we will get it. But will we get it? Will it be by breeding our 

 cows one year to neighbor A's beef bull, another year to B.'s 

 scrub bull of no particular breeding, and another year perhaps to 

 C's dual-purpose Shorthorn? No, never. In doing that we are 

 crossing purposes as well as cattle, and it makes the intelligent 

 man cross to think about it. 



The bull is the one important animal in the improvement of 

 cattle. Through him improvement must come. The use of a 

 good pure-bred bull of a distinct breed, for four or five gener- 

 ations, gives high grades which are practically pure-bred ani- 

 mals of his kind, and where the breeding has been first-class, we 

 cannot expect only better performance from pure-breds than from 

 the high grades. Using a pure-bred bull on our native or com- 

 mon cows gives us a generation of half-bloods. The next gene- 

 ration will possess three-quarters of the blood of the sire, the next 

 seven-eighths, the next fifteen-sixteenths, and so on until we have 

 practically one hundred per cent of the blood of the breed with 

 which we choose to commence. 



The selection of the bull is very important and should be 

 given most careful consideration. Thte fact that he is a pure- 

 bred animal should not constitute all of his qualifications. He 

 should come from a family noted for its strong milk producing 

 qualities. He should be a strong, vigorous individual, having as 

 many points of a dairy animal as possible. If selected for imme- 

 diate service, he will be all the better if he is three years old or 

 over. If he is a calf, he should be grown until he is two years of 

 age before he is given any service to speak about. If on the 



