PRINCIPLES OF LIVESTOCK BREEDING. 49 
INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE AND LIVESTOCK JUDGING. 
As a general rule the most direct methods of estimating the useful 
qualities of animals are the most satisfactory as a basis for selection. 
Until relatively recently it was not practicable to make accurate 
tests of the milk and butterfat production of large numbers of dairy 
cows. The experience of dairymen with regard to the type of cow 
which had proved to be most productive was the best guide in select- 
ing breeding stock. At present the records made in a cow-testing 
association or in attaining advanced registry in a pure breed give a 
direct basis for selection, and the indications from conformation are 
being relegated to a decidedly secondary place, although knowledge 
of the approved dairy conformation is still of use in picking out the 
more promising cows from common stock or from among untested 
purebreds. 
Professor Gowen, of the Maine experiment station, has made an 
extensive study of Jersey records in which he found that even a 
seven-day milk test was more than twice as reliable an indicator of 
year milk yield as the total score or any part of it as given by trained 
dairymen. 
Similarly, the trap-nest record is coming to be more important in 
finding the best egg-laying strains of poultry than the approach to 
a standard type. Wool production is of course judged directly. 
Among Standardbred trotters and pacers speed, of course, has been 
the all-important qualification from the first and has been fixed much 
better than conformation. During the longer history of the English 
Thoroughbred both speed and conformation have been fixed to a 
greater extent than in the Standardbred, but the prime basis for 
selection has always been success on the race course. The judging 
of heavy horses by conformation and action is probably as direct 
as is practicable. In the meat breeds of cattle, swine, sheep, and 
poultry study of the conformation gives the best indication of the 
actual quantity and quality of the meat which can be got without 
killing the animal and also gives indications as to early maturity. 
Detailed descriptions of the approved types can be found in bulle- 
tins on the various breeds of livestock. 
There are constant attempts to find a short cut to correct judg- 
ment through a correlation between some easily observed charac- 
teristic and the useful qualities. The development of the so-called 
escutcheon of dairy cattle was at one time very widely accepted as 
an indication of milking capacity, although the supposed correlation 
appears to have no basis in fact. In the case of poultry there are a 
number of ways, without taking trap-nest records, of picking out 
the hens which have been laying consistently. In breeds with yellow 
shanks those with the palest color have been proved to be the better 
layers. This is, however, really a more direct test than it seems, 
since the yellow color of the yolk of the egg is the same as that in 
