168 



THE GAKUEiN AND FIELD. 



September, 1913 



Improvement Through 

 Breeding. 



In his uncreasing comlemiiaiiou 

 of markets, prices, dealers, and 

 ag-ents, does the farmer stop to 

 consider often enough, that pos- 

 sibly if his steers had somewhat 

 " shorter " legs they might have 

 brought " longer " priees ; that if 

 liis pigs had been smoother in 

 flesh covering, finer in bone and 

 nearer the desired size, they miglit 

 have sold for more money ; that if 

 his horses had possessed more 

 muscle, and more good, dense, 

 llinty bone, they would have Iveeu 

 capable of doing more work, and 

 consequently have been worth 

 more to the buyer. IMany far mess 

 do realise these 'facts and are 

 striving to improve their live stock 

 as rapidly as possible ; others do 

 not. 



Live stock improvement 'can be 

 efiected in two ways, the first 

 through breeding ; the second 

 through care and feeding. Neither 

 can work great improvement alone, 

 but when combined in the right 

 proportio-ns produce amazing re- 

 sults. The origin of all perman- 

 ent live stock improvement, how- 

 ever, must be breeding. 



The principles of animal breed- 

 ing and system.atic live stock im- 

 urovemcnt, is a subject which in 

 centuries gone by has received lit- 

 tle or no attention, and during the 

 past) two centuries has received at- 

 tention from a very limited num- 

 ber of men only. However, just 

 at the present time no, subject is 

 attracting more study and mvesti- 



gation upon the part of thase in- 

 terested in modern live stock im 

 provement than this 'one. 



There are two sides of live stock 

 breeding, an extremely scientitic 

 and theoretical side, and a very 

 practical side. The practical side 

 is the side concerning the farmer, 

 and, therefore, the side dealt with 

 in this article. 



What are the fundamental prin- 

 ciples or laws of animal breeding ? 

 If we thoroughly understand all of 

 these and could answer this ques- 

 tion correctly, the problem of im- 

 proving our live stock would be 

 an easy one to solve. 



Some principals are : — 



1. The need of a standard of ex- 

 cellence, or an imaginary ideal 

 type. 



2. Continued careful and intelli- 

 gent selection toward this type. 



3. The influence .of inbreeding. 



4. The value of good feeding. 



5. The value of pedigree. 



In 'the improvement of live 

 stock of any description, the, first 

 essential qualification of the breed- 

 er is that he have a standard of 

 excellence. That is, that he know 

 what a good animal should look 

 like. If he be breeding Clydes- 

 dales, he should know what a 

 good Clvdesdale horse should look 

 fike. If' he be breeding Shorthorns 

 he should know what a good ani- 

 mal of the Shorthorn breed should 

 look like. Therefore, the first re- 

 quisite of the breeder is that he V.e 

 a good judge. Secondly, the 

 breeder, knowing his ideal, must 



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select constantly and vigorously 

 toward tnat ideal, by mating to- 

 gether animals that conform' near- 

 est to that ideal, and particularly 

 discarding everything from his 

 breeding herd that does not con- 

 form to that ideal type. It may 

 at lirst seem that the average 

 breeder cannot afford to do this, 

 but he can afford to do it and 

 must do it, if he is to keep up a 

 reputation as a good breeder and 

 a safe man from whom to buy 

 breeding animals. 



There will always be some in- 

 ferior animals produced in, every 

 herd, some, that vary so widely 

 from the ideal type that they 

 should be sold to the butcher, and 

 no breeder should attempt to 

 " soak " his fellow breeder by sell- 

 ing him these animals as breeding 

 stock, and above all else he should 

 not " soak " himself by retaining 

 them in his own breeding herd. 

 Get rid of the poor male, giet rid 

 of the poor female, and get rid 

 of both as c|uickly as possible, the 

 quicker the sale the more profit- 

 able it will be. The reason why 

 a great many breeders do not get 

 rid of their poor aaimals is be- 

 cause they do not know how poor 

 the}' are". They think they are 

 breeding good stock, when, as a 

 matter of fact they are breeding 

 realh' inferior animals. Therefore, 

 in mating animals, practice vigor- 

 ous selection. 



In his selection towards his ideal 

 type, Roller t Bake well became so 

 enthusiastic and selected so closely 

 animals that resembled each other, 

 that he unavoidably did a great 

 deal of inbreeding or mating of 

 animals which were closely relat- 

 ed. He soon observed several 

 valuable rules in this connection. 

 First, that inbreeding increased the 

 rapidity with which the type be- 

 came fixed ; second, that it pro- 

 duced finer quality ; third, that it 

 produced early maturity, and 

 fourth, that if continued for too 

 great a length of time, it also 

 produced some evil results, such as 

 loss of sizie, constitutional weak- 

 ness, impotency and barrenness. 

 The practice of inbreeding has been 

 of untold value to many of our 

 best breeders of live stock. It has 

 been of value chiefly in the early 

 histories of the breeds during their 

 formation period, in producmg a 

 fixity of type more quickly, and 

 by improving quality and increas- 

 ing early maturity. It has also 



^ 



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