The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1902-08-09
DO NOT MIX THE RREEDS.

Thars ernuther day ter-morrer, an it hain't
teched yit.
DO NOT MIX THE RREEDs.
In recent numbers of the New York
Tribune Farmer there has been not
little said about the purity of breeds
and keeping them pure, and pro-
nouncing against the indiscriminate
amalgamation of all kinds, breeds and
conditions of cattle, and of all kinds
of stock that is going on so indiscrim
niately at present. There is no surer
way to produce scrubs than to mix
breeds 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
continued improvement is only ac-
complished by keeping to one line of
breeding-that Of full blooded sires
to the same breed every time; but
never when first one breed, than an
other, is taken. The trouble is that
our cattle, as a rule, have too many
relatives, and each of these has con-
tributed a family or breed character
istic, until the desirable influences
and "points" are so far in the minor
ity that it is "constitutionally' i'm
possible to carry on any improvements
with any degree of certainty, and so
year by year, the bad predominates,
and the scrub class is brought more
prominently into view, and with di-
minishing values. The reverse is
true when single bloods are the rule.
This is noticeable in Our dairy stock
the country over. In herd of cows,
nine times out of ten, as herds go,
one will find traces of about all the
breeds of stock in existence, and these
COWS run through the entire gamut of
excellence, about in proportion to
their purity of blood, which, being
interpreted, means that the majority
of cows are of the most mixed breed
ing, and this majority Of cows are of
the class that makes less than thirty
two hundred pounds of milk year
each, when they should produce fully
six thousand pounds, and cost not a
cent more for care or keeping.
The great market world is not ask
ing for or paying high or fancy prices
for mixed breeds of any hind>of stock.
1t is the full bloods of any class that
are first wanted. This is true Of
dairy COWS, and yet we see the mixing
going on every day. The argument
is that cross makes the better ami
NAL.
Two breeds crossed with two dis
tinct purposes-one benefcence, for
ever giving; the other miserly, for
ever storing up only to give back on
the butchers block the mating of a
pound of rs cent butter with a pound
of 6-cent beef, each costing the same
to make, and in the mixed blood,
each pulling its own, and the usual
compromise, some milk and some
beef. But the beef cannot be had
without the sacrifice of the milk
the death of the COW. 1t is grand
and worthy to be breeder and feed
er of the beef types, and to such
breeders all commendation but the
spectacle of man trying to combine
the milk and beef, and running both
types, is a sad one. This is where
the law of common sense should call
an emphatic halt, and still more so
when two or three breeds are mixed
and graded up at last with common
stock.
Wherein could a betterment be
made in our breeding better and purer
types of cattle, especially dairy cat
tie?
Stop the promiscuous breeding of
all kinds and breeds of cattle inN%ne
herd. Select some breed best adapt
ed to the conditions which exist, and
get sire of the best dairy breeding
possible, and use this same sire for at
least three generations. The first
heifers will be so per cent. of the de-
sired blood, and influence. Breed
them back to their own sire. The
second generation will be Is per cent.
of dairy influence, and Is per cent. of
the relationship with their mixed in
huences and weaknesses will have
disappeared, CROSSED OUT" and If
the second generation is again bred
in line, the needed blood will be as 81
to 100. Then another sire Of the
same family blood, and as far remov-
ed from kinship as possible, is secur-
ed, for the fourth generation, and the
herd is freshened with new blood, and
weakened. If the first sire is of
strong vitality, there is not a reason
in the world but that health, vigor
and strong influence will be begotten
each time-far more possible than it
would be to introduce new sire each
generation, and with him introduce a
new line of family faults and frailties,
not to mention new heredities while
in the other case it would be matter
of confirming and making stronger
the lines of the strongest and most
desirable characteristics. In degree
this is natures methods Of breeding,
the survival of the fttest' line breed
ing, so long as the sire could main
tain the supremacy of his particular
harem. We firmly believe that the
average farmer will go wrong far
fewer times in his farm breeding of
stock by retaining the same for two
and three generations, than by the
promiscuous mixing of breeds that is
now going on. There are possibili-
ties in it (; but with the present gen.