Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1895-05-23
IMPROVING STOCK.
DO NOT CHANGE BREEDS FROM TIM
To
select Good Thorough Bred Stock and then
Follow upThat Grade Year After Year
This Plan Secures Best Results,-some
Excellent Advice.

means OF Cross breeding must always
be a precarious process, and it must
from the very nature of things be at
ended with hazards more especially
when done in a tentative way; hence it
should be practiced by the few rather
han by the many. On the other hand,
Improvement through grading is al
ways measurably sure. Where tn
work is judiciously attempted it can be
accomplished without the possession of
great skill on the part of the live stock
owner, and it is a work for the multi
Jude TO engage in. So much SO is this
the case, hat there are but few who
may not effect Improvement in this
way.
Grading, in the ordinary meaning of
The term, signifies using a pure bred
male on the one side, upon a dam of
common or mixed breeding on the
other. Other modes of grading are
oracticed, as the mating of animals of
mixed breeding, but the results are so
uncertain from grading after this fash
on that it is scarcely worth while to
attempt to effect improvement in this
way.
In up-grading it is essential that the
male be pure, individually good, and
~orepotent. In purity of breeding we
AVE the guarantee that the animal has
an accumulation of characters of a
certain kind to transmit. In good in
l~ividuality in the animal and in his
ancestry, more especially his immediate
ancestry, we have the guarantee that
these characters are valuable. And in
orepotency we have the guarantee that
;hese good characters will be repro
luced in the offspring. Hence when
he pedigree is good, and also the in
dividuality of the animal, we may ex-
oect good results from using such a sire
n grading in nearly every instance.
But when grade sires are used we can
not be r of good results, owing in
the first place to a lack of dominant
characters, and in the second place to
the instability of the same.
1t follows therefore, that when inn
orovement is sought through grading,
the sire used should be purely bred,
where it is at all possible to obtain
such sires at a reasonable cost. Where
his is not possible the next best thing
is to use unpedigreed sires of as good
individuality as can be obtained, and
with as large a portion of pure blood
elements Is it is possible under the
circumstances to get. The results from
using such sires will oftentimes be I'M
satisfactory, but on the whole they will
be a vast improvement on those OBJ
tanned from the use of common SireS.
These high grade sires, however, should
never be used when pure breds can be
obtained at reasonable prices. There
may be much difference of opinion as
TO what reasonable prices may mean:
but 1t should never be expected that
good pure bred males can be put upon
the market at meat prices. In that
ease there wCnld be no remuneration
for the superior skill and expense re-
CURED in breeding such animals.
When they have to be sold at meat
prices the work of breeding pure breds
must cease, for the time has not come
yet when men will in any considers Bile
numbers engage in the arduous work
of breeding pure bred animals. actual
ed by purely philanthropic motives. If
good pure bred males a be secured
by paying twice the meat price for the
pure sire, in the opinion of the writer
the buy er should be content.
While it is a great mistake to neglect
to use pure bred males where they can
be obtained at reasonable prices, il is
even more unfortunate when inferior
pure breds are chosen. Their purity
Of breeding renders them prepotent to
transmit inferiority, unless we can be
quite sure that the immediate ancestry
On both sides have possessed good in
dividuality. OF all kinds of scrub sires
in the world, pure bred scrubs are by
FAR the most potent for evil. The pur-
chasers of such make a grievols mis-
take, but perhaps no less so than the
breeders who fail to castrate those ami
mails. Neglecting to use the knife in
such instances has probably done more
to retard the progress of live stock inn
~provement than all other agencies COM
bined. Thus screly has the live stock
interest been wounded in the house of
its friends.
On the other side of the dam, animals
Of common or mixed breeding will an
swer well for foundation stocks, pro-
vided they are good individually. 1t
would not be correct to say that the
nature of the blood elements was of no
consequence, but it would be correct to
say that when there was an inclination
or leaning in the blood elements to-
ward the end sought, improvement
would be more easily and more speedily
effected. For instance, when improve
ment was sought in the direction of
meat making, it would be more quickly
secured when the mixed blood elements
in the females had been largely derived
from beef.producing breeds. 1t would
also be correct to say that the free
blending of the blood elements of
various sorts in the past is no serious
barrier in the way Of improvement.
Such blending only tends to weaken
governing cha racters; hence, when a
good pure prepotent male is mated with
such FEMALES he effects great improve
ment in the first cross, since, while he
is potent to effect change, the dams
are weak to resist such change. Con-
tinue to use pure sires of the anne
breed, and in a few generations it will
not be possible to distinguish the ami
- A.