Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1910-11-10
THE SIRE OF A HERD.
lie Must share the Credit of Prepo-
tcncy with the Dam.

tcncy with the Dam.
Is the sire of any herd the entire herd,
or half the herd?
From time immemorial 1t has been the
custom amongst the breeders of the bo-
vine family to hold to one or the other OF
the above ideas, and you can hear to-day,
family. but with a certain amount OF
persistency. that the sire is the entire
or half the herd.
The following words are part Of an
article that was printed in the Pacific
Dairy Review
Not Half the Herd.-This is one of
those old chestnuttv sayings that has
been with us so persistently that we
have come, to believe It, notwithstanding
the fact that it is not true. The fact is
that when we speak Of herds, the sire
~ the whole herd. As the sire is. SO must
the future herd be- There Is no half
way business about II. ''@"
Recently there appeared In this journal,
cate of Aug. q, 1910, page 5, an article
from which we take the following ex-
tracts:
results OF Crosses.-W. J. Spillman,
OF the United States department of agri-
culture writes to Hoard's Dairyman: I
am much Interested in the article of Mr..
-. "a Iowie. in your Issue OF April 49, in
"h'cn he gives the results of crosses be-
tween certain breeds of swine. In the
last paragraph Of this article he touches
U" 'he relative prepotency Of sire and
"i'n III crosses. a great deal has been
Sa'o upon this subject In the agricultural
PAPERS TOT many years. We are now be-
slhihg TO learn some Fundamental facts
mat throw light on this whole subject
Oh prepotency. One thing that looms I'D
quite clearly is that. other things being
equal the dam Is Just as prepotent as tho
sire one reason why the idea has gotten
abroad that the sire Is more prepotent is
because sire has SO many more progeny
than dam; and when he happens to
possess dominant cherac.cristics he
marks "A large number OF progeny But
II dam possessed the same dominant
characteristics she would do the same
IL Is not a question Of how long q
breed has been established TINT poverrs
its prepotency. The matter depends sim
ply whether the breed characteristics are
dominant or recessive When two oppo-
site chara cteristics meet In the Same In
dtvidual, usually one Of them shows and
the other does not The one which shows
is called n dominant characteristic and
the one which does not. a reccssive char
acteristc - ."
rake this article and compare IT with
the above, and we mus, see that we are
beginning to see light" and we are di-
VidinS up proficiency and placing justice
where it belongs; in other words, dividing
the credit
rake for instance the methods that the
Arabs have used for so many thousand
years in the breeding of their horses. and
which have produced a pure blood. unde-
iiod and undegonerated They never
speak OF colt Of such and such sire
they always name the marc from which
the colt came The following quotation
from The Arab Horse. by Spencer Bor-
den. is worthy of more than a passing
notice:
The reader will have noticed that the
Arabs always mention the mares from
which their animals are DESCENDED. and |
so designate the families to which they |
belong. I'm this they are quite right. !
They speak with contempt of the son O.
a horse. This founding a family on !
a mare rather than stallion is n cer<Sen |
guarantee against mongrelisation: and the |
Anazah do not recognize the possibilities |
OF faint ever being covered by the in |
terNention of never so many purebred |
siros They look with contempt on even |
tho best English Thoroughbred since |
tn're il NOT one of them whose family Is |
not lacking in some of its female lines"
Vet in spite Of all this grand krowl- |
edge Of facts which has been in existence |
80 many years. one hears only the name |
of the sire spoken.
"rh' We Of little faith" be breeders.
MOI matters Do not he ashamed to take
M the words of John Hunter Herbert
Knight, Wichura, Mendal. Paterson, OAR
win. Lawrence, Borden, and Shaw. Be
tween the covers OF these books there will |
be many theoretical scientific fact that
Will hem MS out in a practical way and |
then the poor dam will come into her
own.
Look out for your dam. Look well for
your sirc-see that back of him is long
line of milking descendants of known |
ability. and keep cternaily breeding along
these lines and then your efforts will he
crowned with success.
Then we will hear less of the sire being
the whole thing. DIR. George Y, How
land In the New England Farmer
INN Fl or,~~v