PEDIGREE OR NO PEDIGREE

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2394, 25 February 1915, Page 8

PEDIGREE OR NO PEDIGREE

[To the Editor.] Sir,—At a recent meeting held' by the committee of the Foilding A. and *P. Association, the advisability of giving the pedigrees of stud stock on the entry forms was debated. One member, is reported to have said that he considered it jviße to insist on having the pedigrees of the stock entered for the show., Another.momberwho is not only a breeder but-is also president of one'of the leadings, shows of New Zealand is reported to have spoken strongly against the suggestion, also stating that ho was not very keen on.pedigrees. For my part I have been a supporter of, and an exhibitor and a spectator at, A. and P. - shows for close on forty _ years, and, speaking as a' spectator .interested/ in stock-breeding, there is very little' interest to me in passing a nnmber of pens containing animals perhaps good enough in themselves, but only catalogued as Mr. Blank's" entry. Aid furthermore animals thus labelled give spectators a falso impression of the stock bred in a country or particular locality, since the person who enters them may or may not _be the hrceder; very often is not. Pedigrees are tho only practical guarantee of pure breeding, and nowadays, when any show of eminence is inviting entries,. it requires, pedigrees, as a guarantee that the animals entered in the stud sections are purebred. Breeders of repute and experience know that however good a grade animal may be in itself ; it is incapable of transmitting its good qualities to its descendants. I take it that a breeder exhibits an animal at a show as an advertisement of his herd or flock. The public can pass their judgment on the animal itself as it stands in-the pen, but tho man who desires- to buy. .either the animal itself or'its progeny:or animals coming from the same flock or herd wants to know a good deal more; he wants to know if that animal's ancestors have been of uniform excellence for many generations back; has it a good pedigree? A good pedigree' is not merely a long -list of registered names; it should mean that every name set down in that list is the name of an animal that had reached a high standard of excellence, and just so long as all those inherited good qualities aje transmitted by their possessors to their descendants, so long is that particular strain of pedigree animals valuable. • How ofton does it occur that a breeder, careless of pedigree, produces an animal of great merit, and if he does it is chance that' has befriended him. A stud breeder and not keen on pedigree! Is not,tho most perfect specimen of breeding the English thoroughbred horse? And lie has only attained that proud position .by the most minute and careful study of past records by men who have extracted him as it wore bit by bit, good quality after good quality, from many strains of high dcscent; high 'courage and a perfect form. This marvellous perfection has been evolved simply by the intense study of the Stud Book, the most, .perfect record'of pedigrees and'stud breeding in the world, by men witii whom stud, breeding is the ruling passion of their lives.—l am, etc., D. P. BUCHANAN, i Marfield, Oumiinskam'Bi J