Daily Kennebec journal., 1908-12-10


important a part is the selection Of the
head of the herd. The old saying, that
the bull is half the herd" was never
truer than it Is today. With the dams
and sire equally as we'll bred, this say
ing is true. But where the dams are of
mixed breeding and the sire is pure
bred, he is much more than half the
herd.
A mistake too often made In the pro-
cess of grading up is to use one Of the
grade males as head Of the herd. Inl-
provement stops and fortunate indeed
will be the breeder who is able to MAIN
tain the standard to which he has al
ready reached. The young animal
would have no more of the improved
blood than it's sire and dam, and the
small amount of unimproved blood in
each of the parents would stand a
chance of nicking and producing bad
results. The breeder would say that the
animal was taking back, while In truth
it was simply the latent characteristics
showing themselves as the result Of the
breeders earlessness.
The question often arises I cannot
afford pure bred bull. That is not the
question. 1t is can / afford not to have
one, and the answer is most decidedly
you can not. With herd OF 20 cows
for instance there is at least an invest
ment involved Of $4,000 We have con-
ccded that the sire is at least half OF
the herd. Does it seem right to balance
it with an animal worth from $25 to
$40? An expenditure of 800 TO $3.50 will
quite often procure a good Individual
and one whose breeding is good.
With the scrub bull as father Of
them, at least three-quarters of the
Eeifers will prove to be failures, so
those that do prove to be producers
will be costly animals, and the class
of boarders will be enlarged. With
the pure-bred sire three-quarters of
the calves will grow into cows at least
as good producers as their mothers,
and most of them will excel her. The
money first expended will come back
bringing a dividend with it.
Once the bred has been decided up
on always stick to the same blood.
The mistake is often made of jump
ing from one breed to another. If a
change must be made, sell out and
start at the bottom again. The re-
suits will be just as satisfactory and
as financial venture the returns will
be greater.
In advocating the work of grading
up. I do not underestimate the work
of the breeds of pure-breeds. His work
is the ideal towards which all are
striving to reach. There is no true
breeder but what has 1t IN his mind
to some day own herd of pure bred
animals. Nobody should be interest
ed more in the practice Of grading than
the breeders themselves. 1t forms a
market for the male progeny of their
herd.
There is no way to so thoroughly
know breed as through its grades.
With a herd Of grades a few pure-bred
females can be purchased, be the num-
ber ever so small and in a few years
time the pure-bred animals VIII have
replaced the grades and the goal will
have been partly reached, but the work
is not finished, it has just commenced
The perfecting of the herd and the
endeavor to reach the ideal which can
| Le approached but never reached.
J The selection of the sire, be it for
| the grade or pure-bred herd, should
occupy the attention of the breeders.
Right at this point serious mistakes
can be made that it will take years
to undo, unless they are discovered in
| season.
Most of the breeds of livestock, in
Guiding dairy cattle, come from across
| the water. Quoting from Kennedy in
| his article Animal Breeding in Europe
| in the second volume of the American
Breeders Report, he says, "many Of tn.
most careful men, rather than to use
a young sire, no matter how good the
individual, or how fancy his breeding
| may be. prefer letting him to some
other breeder for a couple of years
or until they are sure of his stock, OF
to retain him in ther own herd OF
| flock, and use him on a few females
until he has proven himself worthy
of place at the head of the breed
| ing herd or flock. By the adoption OF
| this method much time is saved and
no small amount of disappointment is
| avoided" If more of our young bulls
were first tried or dams whose powers
of breeding were known, there would
be fewer disappointmnts.
The reason that many sires are sent ia
| the butcher while young is probably to
| avoid in-breeding. The extent to which
| in-breedng can be carried with safety is
| always an open question. We can say
that scarcely breed has been formed
| but what somewhere in it's history in.
| breeding las been practiced to fix and
intensity the type. The need at present
is not as great as formerly, but undoubt-
edly there are instances when it can be
used to advantage in fixing some dosir.
able characteristics. 1t is not to be rec.
commended in general as it must be re.
membered that the undesirable as we'll as
| the desirable characters are intensified
and it is only the careful observer that
will know VIXEN 1t can be applied. The
| fact that it is said to weaken the con.
stitution of the animal is quite true ir
many cases from the fact that animals
naturally weak are often used for in
breeding, and this being an undesirable
character is intensified and fixed with
the rest OF them. II in-breeding is to b<
practiced it would be better to use only
Il part of the herd. Their if the results are