The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1897-02-06
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BREEDING FOR BUTTER.
Sorting Out a Positive Necessity 4
All Kinds Of Farming. .S&5

Sorting Out a Positive Necessity I'm
All Kinds of Farming. 10
"There's many slip 'twixt the cup
and the lip" and many mis-cue in
breeding up a dairy herd. Granting
the truth of what has been taught us
as to the value Of intelligent breeding,
Rural Life says, it is also true that the
laws Of heredity do not overpower all
other laws. IT,
The most efficient rule in improving
a breed of hogs is the ''sled stakes"
rule. That is, to use a sled stake on
all pigs not filling the requirements
in milder form. this rule sends to the
packing house all of one class, and re-
serves as breeders the others. This
Sorting out is a positive necessity in
all kinds Of faru.i1g saving seed grain,
raising hogs, growing a beef herd Or
growing dairy herd. Progress is pos
sible only by selection. The rule that
'like produces like" is not true when
cut down to absolute limits. If it
were, progress would be impossible.
Retrogression and progression would
both be unknown were the rule Of like
produces like absolute. We could not
average things by mixing, and could
not improve a breed or make a new
one.
But like produces like with a yaria-
ton. Some will be better than the
parents: some poorer The sled stake
rule will keep the herd up to the high
est excellence, or selecting the best for
keeping and discarding all the others.
Sometimes man finds his dairy act
ually inferior after breeding for butter
than it was before. He may have
MIXED a few excellent COWS OF mixed
ancestry and graded up with a dairy
sire. Some of the offspring may be
better than the mothers, some poorer,
and if he keeps them all he has an in
ferior herd; if he disposes of the infe-
rior ones and keeps only the best, he
should find the herd improving. This
will be the result without buying any
improved blood Selection is the main
thing, but the number that must be
discarded from herd not bred in
dairy lines must be greater. Therein,
and only there, lies the advantage of
breeding for butter or for any other
purpose. The number that must be re-
'jected is lessened by breeding in the
direction desired.
Suppose farmer breeds to Guern-
sey or a Jersey bull. The half-bloods
will almost surely please him. FIe
goes on grading up," and in some in
stances finds the higher he grades the
poorer his herd as a whole. This is
.discouraging, but if a fact, he should
face it honestly. Why may this be?
1t may be for the following reasons:
In grading up he breeds from all the
haf-bloods, and a portion Of the off,
spring inclines toward milk-giving and
portion away from it. The law Of
variation gets in it's work and some Of
the higher grades are inferior to thb
: lower grades, and the farmer is slower
to sacrifice them. Hence his herd nav
as whole actually retrograde.
Selection stands first Of all as
means of securing a good dairy herd.
Raise many, save few, feed we'll, and
success is sure. But, as said Before.
blood is helpful, for training in tie az.
sired line and selection for many geh-
eratlons in that line measurably fixes
traits and fewer individual animals
have to be discarded.