/ 
g New York AgricutturaAL Experiment STATION. 129 
A theory very strongly advanced by certain experimenters, 
and by some thought clearly proven, is that good nourishment 
causes a preponderance of females in the offspring. 
It will be seen from the foregoing tables that as a total result 
there was an excess of 8.9 per cent. females over the mails, 
hardly a difference sufficient to establish such theory. 
The first calf, apparently, stands an even chance of being male 
, or female, while in the case of the five breeds most numerously 
reported the chances are that the second calf will be a female, 
_ the chances being as 100 to 123. 
| Another theory which has been widely held is that when the 
male parent is the elder the male offspring will preponderate. 
While this view can not be settled by the data presented, it 
receives little by way of confirmation, since obviously the aver- 
age age of all the cows reported increases, while no such increase 
is permitted in the case of the sires. If now we divide the calves 
into periods of three we shall have: 



Se ee a ee a SP rN 
ist, 2d, 3d. 4th, 5th, 6th. ‘th, 8th, 9th. 1¢@th, 11th, 12th, 13th. 
oo _—_“— — ime ca a NY SSE eS a EI SO Dae 
Males. Females. Males. Females. Males. Females A Males. if Females. 
i> 3 1054 517 549 192 217 58 64 
¥ Per cent. Per cent. Per cent. Per cent. 
ih 47.7 52.3 48.5 51.5 46.9 53.1 47.5 52.5 
The above shows a very slight increase in the percentage of 
females, with an increase in the age of the cows. 
The Individuality of the Cow as Influencing Offspring. 
SE ee aes 
In the data collected no fact is so prominently indicated as 'the 
prepotency of the cow in determining the sex of her offspring. 
_ Asarule it is seen that the number of males and females are 
' nearly alike, the latter being in an excess of 8.9 per cent.; but 
_ among the returns received many instances point emphatically 
to the predominating influence of the cow herself. 
_ The following table presents the record of 51) cows dis- 
My tributed among seven different breeds, each one of which shows 
* this with more or less force. 
It will be seen that one Jersey cow had in succession seven ‘bull 
: : calves and that two other Jersey cows, as also a Holstein-Frie- 
sian cow, had in succession each seven heifer calves; that two 
f _ others had each five bull calves and three others each five -heifer 
3) 17 
—Y 
» an, ao 





