HAVE YOU THOUGHT OF IT?

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 433, 24 January 1912, Page 7

HAVE YOU THOUGHT OF IT?

In his most excellent and thoughtful addressi before the Eastern Guernsey Breeders' Association, at the Continental Hotel, Philidelphia, Mr. W. H. Caldwell, Secretary of the American Guernsey Cattle Club, worked out the following interesting figures relative to the blood of pure bred sires when the breeding is carried on in straight lines for six generations. He said : "Did you ever stop to think of the influence which a sire stronger 01 better than your females exerts in your herd ? In the first generation the progeny should be 50 per cent. of his merit ; second generation, the progeny should be 75 per cent, of hi* merit ; third generation, the progeny should be 87£ per cent, of Ms nerit ; fifth generation, the progeny 3hould be 93 J of his merit ; sixth generation, the progeny should be 98 11-25 of his merit. Now, if for six generations you have used a class of sires superior to your cows, you have a herd 98 11-25 of which should theoretically be attributed to the sire's influence and only 1 14-25 o: this belongs to your original females. At which figure you can estimate the value of such sires ?"

Perhaps the above needs a little explanation. Mr. Caldwell does not mean in his calculation that the blood of the original sire should b< used on six generations of females. Rather that if a farmer starts breeding with a pure bred sire of any breed, and sticks to it for six generations, at the end of that period th« progeny will represent only 1 14-2S of the blood of the original females. It is difficult to find farmers whe have had the foresight and energy tc maintain such breeding in a straight line for six generations. There is a jreat tendency among them to cross breed, try something else, a nd so all :he long and prepotent lines are broken up and the last state of the progeny is worse than the first There are hundreds of communities vhere, for instance, Jerseys were all the go thirty or forty years a go and now the prevailing type is a poo-r, shrunken, Jersey scrub not worth lear as much as the old native cow. The owners of these cowsl to save the jxpense on bulls have simply bred just as cheaply and poorely as they possibly could and they have got what they unconsciously worked for—a poor scrub.

The breeding down habit and process is very vigorously maintained in a great many communities.