The Lamar register., 1905-03-08
|IIVEi|
STOCK
Reject Unsuitable Breeding Stock.


when 1t presents itself. But the pol
SuIp9aIq eul VI s9I!s p9Iq-sind 10 esu
up OF live stock, and many men have
gone further by replacing their graded
stock by pedigreed animals OF con-
siderable merit There is now anoth-
er step to be taken that is quite as I'm
portant as breeding out the scrub
blood or substituting pure-bred for
grade stock. We refer to the neces-
sity of culling out all unsuitable
breeding animals in every herd and
stud of the country Hundreds of bulls.
boars and rams are being sold for
breeding purposes each year that are
doing harm instead of good, and that
should have been castrated by their
breeders. 1t is hard to get breeders
to attend to such matters as this.
Thcy can usually find buyers for In
different sires and so take the chance
Icy is ruinous in the end. The repu-
tation of the breed and the herd is at
stake in the sale of every animal that
goes on the farm for breeding pur-
poses. The breeder cannot afford to
sell poor representative of his herd
II he will but stop to think the matter
over fully. By castrating the poor in
dividual he will make a profitable
feeding animal and spoil a bad sire.
II he sells he but enlarges the num-
ber OF scrub pure-breds in the land
and their number is getting to be
enormous. II there is anything that
WIFI hurt the pure-bred stock business
worse than the continued selling and
use of poor Individual sires and dams
we have not heard of it, and we are
convinced that the time has come to
act honestly and severely in this d.
rection. Not every man who wishes
to improve his live stock knows how
to select a representative sire of the
best individuality. For this reason he
has to trust to the honesty of the
breeder. whom he asks to make the
selection for him. He may state that
he does not wish to pay high fig
uro. and the breeder very naturally
takes advantage of the circumstances
to send him a poor individual that is
cheap so far as cost is concerned but
terribly dear when we consider the
mischief he will do in the herd to
which he goes. The honest breeder
who has at heart the best interests of
his patrons and of the industry In
which he is engaged should never find
himself in a position to supply a
cheap and at the same time Indifferent
sire of any sort. He should castrate
every animal OF this kind and have
nothing but good individuals for sale.
Were every breeder to act In this way
the number of serviceable sires would
be reduced, but their value would In
crease and the value of the breed rep
resented would also be certainly en-
hanced In time by the persistent use
of nothing but firstclass sires. As 1t
Is. hundreds of Indifferent sires are
In use throughout the country. and
their breed gets the blame of their
bad deeds. Thousands of high-grade
bulls are also being used. They show
most Of the breed characteristics Of
the blood predominating In their
veins. but they do not possess breed
prepotency and cannot surely trans
NIT breed type and quality. A few
crosses of Hereford blood will. for
example, give us a bull that shows
white face and other characteristics
OF the Hereford breed. But he is not
a fullblood Hereford and will not
transmit his own characteristics per-
fectly. Indeed he will be very likely
to transmit scrub characteristics IL he
is mated with grade cattle. Such
bulls hurt the breed, and the same
thing is true of grade sires OF all
other breeds. They should be cas-
! trated. They are hurting our live
stock industry more than words can
I tell. But they are not the only Of
tenders. There are Just as many
rank bad pure-bred sires In use
throughout the land. They are Door
individuals. but at the same time they
possess breed prepotency, and for
that reason may transmit some of the
good points of their breed. But they
are not good enough for the times.
The best is none too good and every
breeder should maze it his earnest en-.
deavor to buy not merely the cheap
est. but the best sire he can find or
send his females to for service. Gull
out the poor individuals. They will
pay for feeding purposes and the re-
suit of such work carried out in
wholesale fashion will surely benefit
all concerned.-A. S. Alexander in
EnrmarS' Payiau.