The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-08-31
EVILS OF MIXED BREEDING
CORRECT Principles IN Eos
TERING THE BEST STOCK

:. TERING THE BEST STOCK
Use None but Pure Bred Sires-De-
termine What Is Wanted and
Cling to 1.-THE Kind of Horses
Most Probably Raised-POints
on the Cattle Industry-HOw to
Avoid Production of Scrub Stock.
The evils of mixed breeding are not suf-
hciently understood by farmers, as the con-
tribuG0ns to the stock yards daily prove,
or, il they are understood or comprehended
then there is an Indifference paid to the
subject which reveals degree of thrftless-
ness and neglect Of justifable self-nterest
for which 70 adequate apology can be Of
fered. This question has of late been re-
ceiving more and more attention at the
hands CT those who are conscious of the ex-
istence OF the evil and who from long ex-
Perierce ard practice in the application of
correct theories, are most capable Of ad-
vising their fellows as to the course to be
pursued in order 10 secure the best results.
W G. Walker, Of Coles county. Illinois,
is a man whose judgment is based upon
lifelong personal familiarity with the en-
tire question. He has recently contributed
to the Breeders Gazette an instructive letter
covering especially horses, cattle and poul-
try. Space will not admit of the publication
OF the entire letter. but the better points
respecting horses and cattle given be-
low. OF horses, Mr.. Walker says:
We have four kinds OF horses that it is
profitable to raise-draft horses, heavy har-
ness or coach horses light harness or road
sters and the gated saddler-and each class
has different families to choose from. Among
the draft we have the French, English and
Belgian, each, perhaps, better suited to GER
tain lines of work than either of the others,
but all Of them well fitted TO do any of the
heavy work of the farm, and when sold will
give YOU a handsome profit for the care and
feed given them, but what l want to thor
oughly impress upon your minds is that
when you have selected the kind of horse
you wish to raise be loyal to your breed.
Use nothing but a pure-blo0d sire; save
your best fllies breed to the same kind.
and with three crosses your FLIES are eli
gble to registry, and with five crosses your
horse colts are eligible, So you are ready
to begin to sell pure-bred stock for breeding
purposes, a thing you could not do If you
had followed mixed breeding.
Again, ii you keep changing from one
breed to another you are liable to produce
what scientific men call atavism, which
means reversion 10 the type of some remote
ancestor. You can easily lose in a few
crosses what our best breeders have gained
during the last century. There is in most
all neighborhoods man with horse he
calls an all-purpose horse. He will talk
learned,y about the draft horse being too
heavy for farm work and the light-harness
horse being too light, He claims he can;
not afford to pay for the use of a pure-bred
sire; he will only charge half as much. etc.
Too often he succeeds in getting your pat
ronage, and when you have raised your
colt to maturity you find there was slight
mistake about the name-that instead Of an
all-purpcse horse you have a no-purpose
horse. You not only find that you have no
use for your horse but you find that no one
else has any use for him either.
The farmers of our country have sunk
millions of dollars trying to produce an all
purpose horse py breeding from grades. The
result is that we have lots OF farms over
stocked with horses that there is no market
for. In fact there has been no market for
that class of horses since the street car
horse went out of business. There may be
an all-purpose horse, or rather dual-pur-
pose horse; that is one that is suitable for
the heavy work on the farm, also with style
and action enough to be suitable to hitch to
the farmers carriage and take the family to
church or to the city, and l think you will
find him to - the heavy-harness or coach
horse, and l believe he will be one of the
most profitable horses to raise in the future;
but the only way TO produce him with any
degree of certainty is by the use of the pure
bred sire; it cannot be done by the use Of
grade stres.
The following is in part what Mr.. Walker
says in regard to the mixed breeding Of
car!c:
The cattle INDUSTRY of the country is in
deplorab!e coadItion today for want of uni
formity of pdrpose in breeding. Feeders
are complaining all over our land. They
feed-lots with a profitable class of feeders.
There has been too much mixing of dairy
breeds with the beef Breeds to the injury
Of both. We will take the history of the
cattle industry of our own immediate neigh
bcrhood. and 1 do not doubt but others have
his a similar experience. About forty years
agU few enterprising men brought the
Shorthorn cattle into our country They
were mostly called Durhams then. 1t was
not long until their grades were seen graz
ing upon most of our pastures, and it would
be an easy matter to find witnesses to testify
that we had better cattle in our township
thirty years ago than we have today, notwith-
standing we have had introduced the Devons
the Ayreshires, the Guernseys, the Jerseys,
the Observation-Disclosures, the Herefords and
the Angus, all of them good cattle in their
place, but it certainly is not good practice
TO Unfortunately mix them ali together in
breeding.
1t 1t true some men have gone on breed
ing Shorthorns and have good herds today,
while others have taken up some one of the
other breeds and have graded up their herd
with their one chosen breed and have cattle
that they justly feel proud of, but there
are Others who have bred to everything new
that was available, whether grade or pure
bred without any definite purpose in view,
and now all that is required is a cross of the
Galloway to have nothing left except a pile
o! bones and bunch of hair The dairy
breeds are all right in their place, but their
place is certainly not on our stock farms
where meat production Is the leading idea,
but rather on farms situated near our larger
towns, where milk and butter can be deiiv-
cred to special customers direct from the
farm, without the Intervention of the middle
man, and even if the farms are large enough
to feed the calves raised until ready for
market. perhaps the Red Polls or Shorthorns
would be more profitable; they are the two
breeds that may be classed dual-purpose
cattle. The Shorthorns made a record at
the Worlds fair as a machine for the profit
able production of beef and milk combined
that is hard to get around.
Choose whatever breed is most suited to
your environments; use nothing but a pure
bred male and in few years you will have
youth herd graded up to a uniform type and
color and so per cent more profitable than
any mixed breeding could possibly be. and n
you should chose one of the beef breeds Of
cattle and that is the kind that the great ma
tority Of our farmers are trying to raise
don't let even your mother-in-law persuade
you to bring a Jersey on the farm. for If
you do your cattle will soon be like Jacobs
Of o.d-all colors and of every type except
that of a good animal.