State Convention—Grass is Kino. 
395 
THOROUGH-BREEDING. 
Breeders of line stock understand and certify to the importance 
of breeding only from choicest animals, especially for those that 
possess the best and strongest hereditary qualities. Blood is of the 
first importance; and the longer the ancestry and the more perfect the 
type, the stronger will be the transmitting power. This line of 
hereditary worth, if interrupted by a low-bred mongrel on either 
side, or of either sex, will be so damaged as to require careful breed¬ 
ing for several succeeding generations, to restore the integrity of 
blood and tone of character which are impaired by the unworthy 
interloper; just as the good name and noble qualities of a family 
that has won an enviable reputation for many successive genera¬ 
tions of untarnished honor, and brilliant achievements, is tainted 
for a century by martial alliance with some miserable sneak, who 
wriggled himself into good quarters, under the disguise of a gentle¬ 
man; or with some disgraceful slattern, whose borrowed tresses and 
fashionable attire helped her to reach the position of a lady. 
On the well-established principle that it is impossible to find a 
man of solid character, of able body, and of vigorous mind, unless 
begotten of a mother of sterling qualities, it is deemed important, 
by breeders of choice dairy-cow^s, that the mother of both male and 
female animals in use should have been cows that gave large quan¬ 
tities of milk; and that the sires of the calves that are intended for 
dairy-purposes, should be under three years of age, after which 
their usefulness will be less valuable for the dairy than for ordinary 
cattle-raising operations. The chief care of the successful breeder 
of dairy-stock, is to keep constantly in view the hereditary milking 
qualities which he seeks to perpetuate, without coming in contact 
with any taint of blood, or diminution of integrity, that would 
weaken or lower the standard from which he started, or at which 
he aims, in laudable efforts, to build up a dairy of the greatest pro¬ 
ductiveness and excellence. 
This will explain why cows are sold at from thirty to forty thou¬ 
sand dollars each. They are not freaks of nature and results of 
accidents; but, on the contrary, the product of long, accurate, and 
skillful breeding. 
