Show RAISE STANDARD OF ANIMALS bringing out de desirable bics tics by Se selective lectie breeding receives more attention prepared by the 7 united ltd states department of agriculture tile the task of raising the standard of form farm aninias inaina in lina s and poultry and bringing put certain oes d fI rable frable by selective bri aing is rec receiving elvIng more at as moll ioda of 0 forming farming for profit heroine become intensified the breeding of dom dailies doilies estle lie animals dates back to t remote antiquity when V vhf 11 N interest the boy in better stock tile hp most advanced races of the old world were on the border line between savagery and barbarism it far antedates any hut but the simplest mechanical arts yet while our knowledge of the laws of nature as they apply to machines lias has readied reached great and complexity it has been compare comparatively a few years since ac principles of breeding have lieen been more than a collection of unrelated traditional beliefs the same superstitions on oil which the shepherds of asia bated their practices at least 30 centuries ago are still widely current w hile the one sound principle known to the anc ancients lents selection of the best tor for breeding stock is still much neglected the principles of successful animal breeding as they have been learned by practical experience esper lence in the united states and older countries and by careful itil scientific study along definite alte lines tire are outlined in bulletin recently issued ly by tile united states department of agriculture this bulletin goes into the first principles of reproduction and follows with the means by which certain characteristics of one or the other parent are transmitted to the offspring the methods of selection best suited to intensity intensify the desirable ch characteristics arac teris ties and weed out the undesirable the characteristics which can call with certainty be expected to continue from one generation to another those which nie aie uncertain arid and those which cannot be inherited aside from mere increase in numbers tile the purposes which the breeder is 13 likely to have in mind tall fall under two more or less distinct heads namely production of a uniform product and improvement A uniform product depends on such control over the heredity of the stock that can be made with the assurance that the offspring will nill be of a certain definite type for which there Is a demand improvement Is of course closely related to control over heredity but the methods which give the greatest control are not necessarily those which lead to the most rapid improvement in a broad sense the whole subject of practical breeding comes under the lien head of selection the roost most obvious basis for such selection Is the performance of tile hie animals themselves unfortunately the merits of most kinds of live stock cannot be measured directly the study of conformation as rn an index of useful qualities has accordingly held a high place as a basis for s selection of breeding stock live stock judging has this for its purpose an animal a of good breeding is a better one to bried than one of equal individual merit but of mixed or common breed ing pedigree though often misused is a valuable aid to selection apart from follow follon ing ft a general pulley policy of mating the soundest basis of all for selection of breeding stock Is the record of past performance as a bre breeder edor provided the record Is sufficiently extein sive to give a fair test |