The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1901-12-12
Natural Breeding.
(From the FARMERS Review

reach and purse of his class. By fine
stock he of course means pedigreed.
registered stock, and his idea of such
animals is that they are difficult to
find, difficult to raise and maintain in
their original excellence, and costly.
He makes the mistake of thinking that
no stock is fine unless possessed Of
pedigrees which will allow it to enter
In the respective stud or herd book
OF Its kind. Let us say for his benefit
that "all is not gold that glitters;" all
stock is not really fine by reason of the
mere fact that it is pedigreed. Live
stock properly produced from reason
able mating of excellent animals may
be indeed excellent in most respects or
only fall short of perfection on account
of some admixture of blood or slight
diversion from straight line in breed
ing which renders it ineligible to re-
cord. At the same time thousands Of
poor specimens of pedigreed cattle.
horses, sheep and swine are annually
produced and retained for breeding
purposes which should by rights be
castrated or rejected for breeding SER
vice. The pedigree is not always proof
positive of excellence. 1t may and is
reasonably certain to prove that pure
blood is prepotent above that of the
scrub animal and often explains the
power of an apparent scrub possessed
of pedigree to beget progeny greatly
excelling the parent in every good
point and particular. But nowadays
the pedigreed animal is no longer in
demand unless he or she possess not
only pure blood but the apparent evil
dences of superior excellence in every
respect as the result of long continued
breeding in the same direction and
purity. In other words the pedigreed
animal must carry it's pedigree upon
its back, as has been we'll said by
practical man who looked more to
present gain than future possibilities.
Really fine stock can be easily pro-
duced by any careful, persevering
farmer and at a small outlay of cash
if he follows natural methods of breed
ing. To him the main object should be
to produce practical beasts for imme-
date returns in flesh, wool, work. etc.
1t is rarely his province or power to
compete successfully with the big
breeder" in the production of pedi-
greed animals for sale az breeding
stock. He should rest content with the
attempt, which will usually succeed, to
improve his home animals up to a
point of similar excellence when COM
pared with pedigreed stock. This he
n mott c,I,o, ~ 1,
selecting all of his best breeding fe-
males, of similar type and character
and then mating them to a pure bred
female that in every respect meets his
approval as representative of the
breed which is his choice for breed
excellence and his ideal as to individ-
ual excellence. Starting with this
| foundation he should then breed in
natural manner and by that term we
mean breed without regard to family
or pedigree SO long as no departure is
made from the breed originally select
ed to improve the homo herd, stud or
flock. If this be year after year fol-
lowed patiently, ever seeking when the
time comes to purchase new male to
select an animal of the same breed
and type and character and individual
excellence steady progress will be
made in building up a collection of
farm animals which will return good
profits from food utilized. They will
prove far more profitable than scrub
stock, they will return better and sureS
profits for the average farmer than
pedigreed stock kept for the sake OF
| pedigree alone, and will form a legacy
worth handing on to the next genera
ton of farmers. Natural breeding
| forsakes the old idea that the same
| family lines must be closely followed
and stuck to and seeks everywhere for
ideal breeding animals of ideal type to
continue the work Of procreation in a
given herd. By natural breeding the
good qualities of the animals is main
| tanned and the weakening effects Of
in-and-in breeding and even closely
followed line-breeding avoided. Nat
ural breeding is usually used as a term
to describe such breeding Of pure bred
animals only, but as truly applies In
our opinion to sensible methods of
building up herds Of farm animals of
grand excellence for all practical pur-
poses. Another fine point possessed by
these naturally bred, high-grade ami
mails is that they furnish at all times
the very finest foundation stock on the
female side for crossing to bulls Of
other breeds for the production of
cross-bred feeders; this work to be
done of course by others than the
breeders of high-grade females.
A prominent dairy--.n of Illinois
says that it is mistake to describe
any one kind of silo and say that
is the one that all men .hould buiYd
! The material that should go into a si,o
In Alaska is not the same that wonld
be used in Illinois, Silos are actually
being built in Alaska, and logs are
| being used in their construction. The
| logs are followed some on the nnlo,