534 Live Stock and Horse Breeding Improvement. [Sept., 



LIVE STOCK AND HORSE BREEDING 

 IMPROVEMENT IN ENGLAND AND 

 WALES. 



Report for the Year 1921-22. 



Live Stock Scheme. — The aims and objects of the Live 

 Stock and Horse }3reeding Improvement Schemes of the 

 Ministry of Agricultm^e and Fisheries, and the steps taken to 

 secure them, were so fully described in the recently issued Eeport 

 of Sir Daniel Hall on the work of the Intelligence Department of 

 the Ministry for the tw^o-year period ending 31st March, 1921, 

 that it is not necessary to explain again the reasons for the 

 Schemes or the lines on which they are conducted. Those 

 interested in the Schemes and horse and stock breeders generally 

 may, however, wish to know the results for the year ending 

 31st March, 1922, and to compare them with those of previous 

 years. 



The Live Stock Scheme has now been in operation for eight 

 years, and a review of what it has accomplished in face of 

 serious difficulties, to which full reference has been made in 

 previous reports, amply justifies its inception and vindicates 

 its continuation, notwithstanding the call for economy in every 

 branch of national expenditure. The new importance given by 

 the War to the live stock industry as a source of food supply, 

 and the imperative necessity for improvement in the methods 

 that have satisfied the non-pedigTee breeder for so long, are 

 beginning to be reahsed by the farming community. To meet 

 this need the Ministry's scheme has sought to demonstrate the 

 value of a good sire and has assisted farmers by means of grants 

 to obtain the services of such animals at reasonable fees. It 

 has also, by giving financial assistance to societies formed for 

 the purpose, encouraged the keeping of milk records which 

 enable farmers to weed out unprofitable cows and thus grade-up 

 their dairy herds. How much the scheme has progressed on 

 these lines will be readily seen from the figures given in this 

 report. The location of so many approved sires throughout the 

 country must have a beneficial influence on the type of stock 

 reared, and a satisfactory feature of the scheme is the improve- 

 ment in the sires provided and the readiness of farmers to pay 

 higher service fees. 



