The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1876-02-08
The Ayrshire Breeders.

lie uuuual meeting OF the Ayrshire
breeders association, was held at the
Massasoit house in this city, yesterday.
Canada was represented by Messrs. N.
8, Whitney and w. Il. Kay; New
Hampshire by G. f. Hayes and G. N.
Healey; Massachusetts, by William
Birnie,J. d. w. French, DR.. Ii. Wake
field, Herbert Merriam and Enos w.
Boies; Connecticut by s. NJ. Wells and
c. S. Wetherbee and Rhode Island
by E. d. Pearce, Joseph +. Brown,
Obadiah Brown, w. H. Hopkins, Isaac
Hazard and l.. II. Wood. These sew
enteen gentlemen are all well-known
breeders of Ayrshires, a few of them
importers and dealers, and by their en-
terprise and public spirit are fairly en-
titled to The right of building up ma
tional organization for the better pro-
lection of the growing Ayrshire inter-
ests. The election of officers resulted
us follows: President, William Birnie
of this city; presidents, +. D.
Pearce of Providence, r. l., and l.. s.
Drew of Burlington, VII. treasurer, j.
F. Brown of Providence, r. I. ; secre-
tary, J. D. w. French of North Ando-
YER; executive committee, n. S. Whit
ney of Montreal, P. O., S. M. Wells of
Wethersfield, Ct. G. N. Healey of Ex-
eter, N. H., NJ. II. Cochrane of Comp
ton, P. O., and c. NJ. Reeve of Mime
apolls. MINI.
This association have undertaken
and propose, sometime, to publish a
herd-book, under the title of the Ayr
shire Record, which book is to be
continuation of the series of four vol
umes previously published by SINH
lar association, and edited by j. N.
Bagg of West Springfield, with precise
ly the same general Objects and far
less capital and machinery. An at
tempt has been made by the present
organization in the forthcoming vol
ume, to classify the pedigrees. the first
class to include those cattle traceable
directly to importation and the second
class to include those believed to be
pure but which cannot be traced. This
distinction is very distasteful to many
breeders, and particularly to the Cana
dians, who have the oldest and best Or
ganized association for the careful scru-
tiny of pedigrees in the world Messrs.
Whitney and Kay advocated one uni
versal herd book that shall be authori-
ty in all the states and provinces. They
said, truly, that the Ayrshire breed was
originally made up of crosses with 9TH
er breeds. and that there must some-
where be line in breeding, where by |
sufficient number of pure removes
and crosses, the grade would change to
thoroughbred. Mr.. Whitney cited |
three cases in his experience, where
imported animals entitled themselves |
to first-class registry, had thrown
calves las black as hat. He said it
was possible to get bad blood in Scot
land. In tracing pedigrees, if any of
them stick, an INSCRIPTIONS man can |
supply the deficiency, and no commit
tee of vigilance can detect the fraud. |
The secretary replied in defense of the |
two classes OF pedigrees, which was a |
scheme born in his own brain. He said |
the public were very sensitive nova |
days in pedigree matters We are
working for all time, and the founda-
ton should be sound. The committee |
tat
that all animals hereafter imported, to |
be eligible to admission, must he &C. |
companied by certificates giving state
ment of breeding, and marks of identi- |
fication signed by the breeder. whose
character shall be endorsed by the Sec |
retaiy of some agricultural society In |
Scotland. He said he had received |
about 1900 pedigrees for publication,
and about fourth of them gave him
much trouble of correspondence and
research, He could not fix any time |
for the publication, but hoped to Issue
it, next spring. 1t would be delayed |
till it was perfect. He deprecated the
publication of two herd books, as the |
Ayrshire interest was not sufficient to |
sustain them. He mad had sort of
proposition, from DR.. Sturtevant that
in consequence of his editorship Of the
Scientific Farmer and his business
with the centennial commission, he
would give up the name of the North
American Herd Book and its publica-
ton TO the Ayrshire breeders associa-
ton, if they would appoint commit
tee To confer with him in regard to it,
and make him nominally. at least, an
associate editor of the combined work.
This proposition was commented ,as
"A great concession for IA man who one
year ago, unsparingly denounced the
mistakes of the present Ayrshire herd
book, and, after trying his hand at the
business, had fallen into the blunder of
emitting the date of birth of cattle
raised on his own farm. DIR. Sturte-
wants proposition, with the commune
cations from Canada and Illinois, was
finally referred to the executive COM
mittee for arbitration. w, +. Kay of
Montreal was also successful in intro
ducing the following important resolu-
ton of recommendation "That all
animals believed to be pure-bred Ayr
shires, and that can show five crosses
on the side of both sire and dam trac-
ing directly TO importation, shall be
considered thoroughbred" The con-
vention adjourned at the call Of the
secretary. There is some talk of hold
ing the next meeting In Montreal and
the Canadians rejoice at it.-[sprlng-
field Republican.