54 BULLETIN 905, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
erations such a family name may mean practically nothing as regards 
either type or breeding. A judgment based on a family name in the 
straight male line is no better. The direction of attention away 
from real values always means deterioration in the end. A fancy 
for a particular name thus tends to correct itself in the long run, but 
may work great harm to a breed in the meantime. 
THE VALUE OF PUREBREDS. 
The characteristics of our domestic animals are the result of a 
very gradual evolution, which has taken place in the course of cen- 
turies. Even our average scrubs are doubtless superior, in their 
usefulness to man, to the wild animals from which they are remotely 
descended. Until quite recently most of this improvement probably 
came about rather in spite of, than because of, the current beliefs 
in regard to heredity; one sound principle, the selection of the best 
for breeding, was, however, widely enough applied to bring about a 
slow progress. That our livestock are on the average still far from 
utilizing their feedstuffs to the greatest advantage in producing food, 
clothing, and work is shown by the achievements of individual ani- 
mals, usually belonging to one or another of the pure breeds. These 
pure breeds are the tangible result of a century and a half of conscious 
effort at improvement. As hope for a more satisfactory livestock 
situation in the country depends on the further improvement of 
pure breeds and on the diffusion of their influence through the com- 
mon stock, it will be well to consider briefly what has already been 
accomplished. 
The value of the purebreds is clearest in those cases in which the 
capability of the animals is measured most directly. No one would 
question, for example, the supremacy of the English Thoroughbred 
in speed and gameness, a supremacy gained by a long period of the 
most direct selection. xAmong the farm animals, the best illustration 
can be found in dairy cattle, although careful yearly tests of milk 
and butterf at production are relatively recent affairs. The enormous 
differences among dairy cows when given the same opportunity have 
been brought out clearly in a great number of cases. Careful studies 
have shown that these differences are strongly inherited through both 
the sire and the dam. The average for purebreds and grades is also 
much above that for the average milk cow of the United States, 
which produces only about 4,000 pounds of milk and 160 pounds of 
butterfat in a year. 
DAIRY CATTLE. 
The great improvement which can be made by better feeding and by 
the grading up of common cows by the use of purebred sires has been 
demonstrated in all the many cases to which the writer has seen 
