Semi-weekly interior journal. [volume] (Stanford, Ky.) 1881-1905, 1891-04-10
WHAT BREEDING MEANS.
Things which Every stock Raiser Ought
to Usderstand Thoroughly.

10 tbdefbtand thoroughly
What is breeding based on? 1t is based
on heredity. We use another word, po-
tency or prepotency. Mr.. Wylie spoke
of inbreeding as establishing potency.
The Jew is the most wonderfully inbred
man Of all men ON earth. He has been
inbred from the very day he left the
| Egyptians. You may breed him with
any race on earth, and the child will be
a jew more than anything else. Now
those are principles that apply right
here, just the same with animals as with
men. What is the reason for that? Be
cause the Jew has established a type so
potently and powerfully that the mo-
ment the current Of his blood strikes the
current of other blood the Jew current
takes possession Of the other, and the re-
suit is jew. Now that is valuable
thing TO study on; that is the meaning
| of pedigree.
Some men sneer &C pedigree and say
that it is worth nothing Pedigree has
a long number of agreeing bloods behind
1t in line. Men need not only good
| specimen Of the individual animal, but
they need a long line of fathers and
mothers Of the same line characteristics,
so that there is constant agreement
and augmentation and enlargement Of
the functions for which the breeding is
done. 1t is a well known fact today
that if Texas steer is given quarter
Of bushel of corn meal as his ration,
and you take a Shorthorn steer and feed
him the same quantity, you will get
very different results. Why? Because
the power TO assinilate food and pro-
duce meat has been bred into the Short
horn and by constant, slow process
built up.
The Texas steer has not been bred for
anything except to get over the ground,
and know 10y experience that he can do
that | once bad 300 Of them chase me
two miles across prairie, and il a man
is TO be judged by the enthusiasm of his
| following, | was the most popular man
ever seen in Texas. Now, there are GER
tain principles that want to bring out
in order to show that a farmer needs to
study them. Why? Because his money
and his living and his profits are in these
animals, and yet he seems to think that
nobody but the breeder ought TO study
breeding. Why, the farmer is the man
that is to make the money out Of the
farm. 1t is the average farmer that has
10 produce the animals of the country,
not the breeder. Therefore the average
farmer should be just as wise in produc-
| ing a good animal as the breeder. He
should be breeder
Now, take dogs, for instance. They
are a favorite illustration of mine be-
cause it is SO clear on the question of
| heredity. Take a setter and foxhound;
both have noses equally sharp. And yet
hundred of years back wise men began
to breed one dog to smell birds alone
and the other to smell four footed ami
mails alone, and so well have they sue
| ceeded that the setter dog is almost OBJ
| livious to any other scent than the scent
| of the bird
You do not find dog men acting as
foolishly as farmers. No boy Is years
old would ever undertake to go hunting
foxes with a bird dog or birds with a
foxhound or either with q bulldog.
And yet we have thousands and thou
sands of farmers who are trying to make
butter with beef animals and trying to
make beef with butter animals. The
average production of our cows is dis
grace. / tell you, my friends, il is not
feeding 80 much today as it is intelligent
shaping Of these animals for purpose.
An old man jumped up in an institute
and said, You may talk as much as you
have a mind to about it, l say the breed
is in the corncrib," one of those truths
that are partly true; and yet not true. l
said, IF your words mean anything at
all, they mean that you don't pay any
attention to breed, but everything to
feed" YES" he said, that's right"
Every well, said /, ''you are the man
have been hunting for for years. You
have got short cut to success, and /
want TO get it. 1t doesn't make any diff
ference what the breed is, il is all in the
feedY' That's it," he said. VERY
well, said l, do you remember that
razor back hog we had here thirty or
forty years ago?' "Oh, yes" he said
Now" asked, chow would you feed
that hog so rs TO make Poland China
of him" He looked a little staggered
| added, "How would you feed race
horse to make a draft horse out of it?
How would you feed Jersey COW to
make Hereford ont of ity' We'll" he
replied, you may talk as much as you
are mind to, but believe just what
said" Now don't you see that too many
of us are not teachable?
Here is a bale of hay. On one side
comes running horse, on the other a
draft horse, on this side a dairy COW,
and ON that side beef animal. Now
there is just exactly one kind of feed,
yet in one case it produces speed, quick,
fast action; in another slow, strong &C
ton, in another it produces butter, and
in another beef. At another bale are fine
wool sheep and mutton sheep. You see
the difference in the result. What is it