Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1905-01-20
Foolishness in Breeding

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For a number of years | have been
honored. or ~dishonored, by being select
ed as awarding judge at various fairs.
In no place have / ever been where
such n great variety of opportunity
presents Itself for human nature study
as at an agricultural fair. Here IL is
you see people of all degrees of intelli-
gence. Here it is you see the breeder
the dairyman. the fruit grower and the
general farmer. as one could see him ~
no other. place. Many are the lessons
l have learned when visiting a fair
as awarding committee, and many are
the mistakes have / seen there mani
fest when inspecting the live stock as
brought before me to be passed upon,
An agricultural fair is a great school
for one who will attend 1t as a school;
yet many, very many. have no other
thought In attending than sightseeing;
n they go home disappointed ii they
see no balloon ascension, no dog show
or some fool who unjoints his shoulders,
loops the loop on a bicycle or cuts up
some other foolishness.
But 1t is the school side of the fair
set out TO write about, and the mistaken
side of IL, at that. Whenever / had led
before me pure bred herds, / generally
found the exhibitor had some Well de-
fined idea of animal conformation; a
fixed type was in the breeders mind,
n he was striving to produce animals
with q large degree of merit along that
type. But, oh! OIL when I come to
pass upon the grade, then what did /
fnd2 Well. / can't tell all I found.
Only a few OF the serious mistakes can
/ call attention to. At m fair q man
led into the ring as a competitor for
the <best five dairy cows OF his
breeding, w grade Shorthorns, two
grade Jerseys and one grade Holstein.
| asked: my friend, did you breed all
OF these" He answered, Yes" He
said he had some good common COWS,
and he got a Holstein bull and saved
his best heifeT calves, and on some Of
them he had used a Shorthorn. q Jersey
ON some more, and a Hoistein on the
rest. Now, what did he have? Simply
q NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. herd. Some
had n dairy type, others a beef type
and some no type at all. A boy. when
asked the breeding of his dog, said he
was one-fourth setter. ~one-fourth
hound and the rest just dog.
Now, In This ring there were five
herds. Three out Of the five were bred
along just such lines as I nave mem
toned. ] am one who believes that if a
fair is Of any use at III, IL is for the
tChQta ia BtlS OuI Oh III. i lnefG-
fore have to talk a little as well as
judge. l asked these men why they
changed bulls III their breeding. One
said he used a Jersey first, and the
calves were so small he thought he
would try a Shorthorn. Another said
a Holstein didn't give rich enough
milk, SO be got a Guernsey. And one.
on, my! had used a Polled Angus on
his grade Jerseys so his veal calves
would weigh more. What were the
other W herds? will be asked. so i
VIII answer. One man had purchased
a pure bred Jersey bull, had saved his
heifer calves and then used "a pure bred
Jersey upon them. and what he pre-
scented for my Inspection was the re-
suit of this last cross, and there stood
before me an evenly marked, even
sized lot Of 1--we cows-all good COWS.
The Holstein man had done practi-
cally the same thing, only he used the.
Holstein bull, and he presented a first
class, even herd of five cows. The real
and only competition was between
these two herds, enc animal OF either
of which, had they been put up and
sold right there on the fair ground at
auction would have brought more than
the best two of the three other herds.
Now, ! ask, is there not here an OBJ
ject lesson? 1t is a valuable herd
that n dairyman needs and must
nave, or ne can't succeed. Every one
knows this--or should know Ii. And
either the Eolstein or the Jersey grade
herd would produce more dollars in
milk n butter and were actual,y
worth more than twice the number al
the others. Then why, in the name OF
common sense, do hundreds OF farmer
do just what these three men do? I
Will answer the question by saying,
simply, eau so many have no real
fixedness of urpose That, | believe TO
be the great fault Of the American
people OF the present age, and + don't
know as many of them can help 1t.
We as a people are of mixed origin,
and there seems to be a desire TO breed
animals along the same lines we are
bred ourselves. Show me a pure bred
Scotchman and Ii Is either the Ayrshire
or the doddies you will find ON has farm.
They are Scotch cattle. An English
man will stay by the Shorthorn or the
other beef breeds and the mutton sheep.
Just see What the result has been. To
England we owe all there Is OF merit
along beef and mutton lines. We
Americans-what have we done to-
ward establishing pure bred herds?
We took some Spanish sheep and a
few nave developed the American Me- |
rino. We have bred horses that can
make fast miles on the track. and we
call them standard bred" when they !
can trot below a certain limit. We have !
crossed two breeds Of swine and have |
Arf,k sfokn a. fAo DxIa,A (sht.. $500 l