44 
The Value of Pedigreei 
cover if “ liike begets like,” and to prove that the ancestors of 
a pure-bred animal in reality constitute “ pedigree.” 
With reference to the points now under notice, Mr. J, Bennett 
said he believed the time would soon come when we should all 
have to do away with the paper pedigrees, and have rent-paying 
animals that will cany their pedigrees on tlieir backs. He is 
always pleased when he can take his cross-bred cattle into a 
showyard against the pure-bred cattle and beat them, as he 
almost always does, for dairy qualities. Shorthorn breeders, he 
considers, will have to be more particular as to the cows they 
breed their bulls from, for it is no use to breed bulls from cows 
with no milk. He has had pure-bred Shorthorns, but they 
were of no value as milkers, only as grazers. Farmers want 
dairy qualities, and they should see the dams of the bulls, and assure 
themselves that they possess dairy qualities, before purchasing. 
As to keeping Booth and Bates blood distinct, some of the most 
successful breeders have been those who have crossed different 
strains of blood. The late Mr. Stratton and his sons, who have 
been so successful in the showyard, never kept to either Booth 
or Bates, and a mixture of blood gives strength of constitution. 
It would appear, from Mr. Bennett’s remarks, that pure-bred 
Shorthorns are no longer required. No doubt we could get on 
very well for the present, but after a little time we should begin 
to take to selection again — I mean selection of blood. We 
should begin to be particular, and would be very glad to get 
pure-bred animals again. As it is, we have a start which our 
forefathers had not ; they began from comparatively poor stock, 
and worked them up to the pitch of twenty years ago. The 
boom in Shorthorns, as in many other things, was carried 
beyond all bounds of what was good for the country, and I have 
endeavoured to show how by more careful selection we can still 
get the animal we need. We must take a little more pains to 
get it, but at the same time it will cost very much less than 
formerly. 
I do not propose to enter into this question as regards 
sheep and pigs, for nearly, if not all, that has been said as 
regards cattle applies to them as well. I may, however, make 
this remark — and for the second time, so as to emphasise it, — 
that the difficulties of keeping really accurately the flock- or 
herd-book of either sheep or pigs seem to me almost, if not 
entirely, insuperable. The breeder must depend implicitly and 
entirely on his shepherd or his pig man, and even with the help 
of ear or other marks it seems to me to be impossible for, say, 
a shepherd with a flock of 300 ewes lambing, or a pig-man 
with four or five sows farrowing, to keep a correct record. 
