The Southern farm gazette. (Starkville, Miss.) 1895-1909, 1902-08-01
Do Not Mix Breeds.
900

writer who signs himself "Auro-
"a in the New York Tribune
Farmer, says some good things.
One has only to ride through the
country and look at the herds Of
cows which the farmers have
bred, in nine cases out of ten.
from evev breed they could lay
bands on, to see the truth OF what
Aurora says. BY the way, ,ye
suspect Aurora is none other
than that Wiz,rd Of Ohio, John
Could. He says:
In recent numbers of the Trib-
une Farmer there has been not
a little said about the purity of
breeds and keeping them pure,
and pronouncing against the in.
discriminate amalgamatlon of all
kinds, breeds and conditions of
cattle, and of all kinds of stock.
that is going on so indiscriminatc
~ at present. There is no surer
way to produce schrubs than to
mix bl eeds and get antagonistic
forces and purposes into close
contact. While it is true that
common cattle can be graded up
and made far better, the con-
tinued improvement is only ac-
complished by keeping to one
line OF breeding-that of full
blooded sires of the same breed
every time; but never when first
one breed, then another, is taken.
The trouble is that our cattle. as
a rule, have too many relatives,
and each of these has contributed
a family or breed characteristic,
until the desirable influences and
points" are so far in the mlnori-
ty that it is 'constitutionally"
Impossible to carry on any i'm
provements with degree of GER
'tainty, and so, year by year, the
bad'predominates, and the SC rub
class is brought more prominent
ly into view, and with diminish.
ing values. The reverse is true
when single bloods are the rule.
This isnotlcable in our dairy
stock the country over. In herd
of cows, nine times out of ten, as
herds 60, one will find traces of
about all the breeds of stock in
existence, and these cows run
through the entire gamut of ex-
celence, about in proportion to
their purity of blood, which, be-
ing interpreted, means that the
majority of the most mixed
breeding, and this majority of
cows are of the class that makes
less than thirty-two hundred
pounds of milk per year each,
when they should produce fully
six thousand pounds, and cost
not cent more for care or keep.
ing.
The great market world is not
asking for or paying high or fam
cy prices for mixed breeds of any
kind of stock. 1t is the full
bloods of any kind of stock. 1t is
the full bloods of any class that
are first wanted. This is true
OF dairy cattle, and yet we See
mixing gong on every day. The
argument is, that a cross makes
the better animal. Is it so, or is
the cross OF two pure breeds a
compromise! Granted that the
cross is better the first time,
what is it the next? 1t is argued
that the cross of Poland China
and Chesters makes the best fat
tenlng hog, but what of the next
cross! The man is out of a breed
who even crosses the cross of
the best two breeds. and then
he has to go back to the pure
again. Last year l saw a herd
OF fine bred Jerseys headed
with the beefiest of D. fv
black Polled Angus bull, the
idea being to get beef and milk
IN the cross. l asked what he
would use for the second cross
a beef or milk type? Why go
back to the Jersey again. Why
try to breed ont the Anouo ,vh