MENDELISM IN COLOUR.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 472, 2 April 1909, Page 2

MENDELISM IN COLOUR.

ROANS AND OTHER SHORTHORNS. According to Mendel's law of inheritanco the roan colour of a Shorthorn cannot bo fixed hecauso, it is a mixture of the elements of red and white; just as tho "blue" colour of an Andalusian fowl or the markings of a brindle Jersey cow. nro mixtures that cannot l>o fixed - beyond tho likelihood of frequent variation to olio or other of tho separate colours of tho mixture. The colour question, cn Mciulolian lines, is being ' discussed with some vigour in Kngland just now in regard'to tho Shoehorns, and somo queries raised by AV. Parlour in the "Livo Siock Journal" will interest New Zealand breeders of the useful animal, lie says "Colour is by' no moans tho most important Mondelian property, but it is most easily observable, and that is probably why it is usually discusscd to.the exclusion of others. I have been very much interested in tho loiters of Professo: Wilson and llr. Cameron, but latterly tliey havo been sparring at arm's length, disputing over tho meaning of a phrisc or sentence rather than doing what many would havo preferred of them—namely, backing up arguments by clinching facts. It is, however, much easier to point this out than to supply tho deficiency, and there will bo many more inquirers than teachers, even although all Shorthorn breeders, at any rate, have experience to fall back oil. I heard a Shorthorn breeder recommending a rod bull the other day. "And it canio of red parents," lie said, a statement that had weight, and that would have had weight with me, had I been a buyer. At tho same time, I am not in a position to prove that a red from rod parents is more prepotent tc reds in his offspring than a red from roan If anyone could give experience oil this |K)iiit, it would, I am sure. 'm> welcomed by Shorthorn breeders generally. "Calves do not always come of the colours expected. This ww.k 1 saw two podigroo Shorthorn calves by a light roan . bull, just the colour that Dr. T. F. Jamison, in hi* interacting letter in tho ctirroJit issue, proros to have been a most frequent colour ill early Shorthorns. Olio of tho calves, out of a white cow. was a very dark roan; t.ho other, out of a dark roan cow, was a white; This is according to Mendel rather than expectation, although it really proves nothing, for Mendel's adherents, havo a wido colour scheme where roans are concerned. "There nro a few questions I would liko te ask. What constitutes a red f.uimal from

a Mendelian point of view, and how much white is allowable* h> it? If it is rod and white in nearly equal proportions, would it still bo classed with tlio reds? And if a patchy cow of this colour, classed as a red, was mated with a whito bull, would tho offspring assuredly bo a roan ? Would two light roans mated produce as many red calves as two dark roans ? 'Would a light roan bull with dark neck and legs bo more likely to sire- dark roans and reds than a light roan bull with whito less? Tho groundwork of tho one is apparently red, and of tho other apparently white. Those are questions that many would like to hear discussed by whoever has information to impart. Colour'is a very wide subject, and thfs limited oxperienco of an individual breeder is insufficient to answer all quostions that could bo asked. "It is said there aro plenty of whito Shorthorns in Argentina, notwithstanding their buyers' insistenco on reds or dark roans. If so, thoy may in time come to love tho red, white, and roan as we do, and may our love I for these colours, and all of them, never grow less; notwithstanding the fancies of foreign or colonial customers."