BREED PEDIGREE STOCK.

Otago Witness, Issue 2663, 29 March 1905, Page 6

BREED PEDIGREE STOCK.

This is the moral of two essays in the Journal of the Bath and West Agricultural Society, and reviewed in the Scottish Farmer. The one is from ths pen of Mr A. T. Matthews, who writes as a tenant farmer, the other is the result of observations made by JVIr Harold Sessions, F.E.C.7.5., during his residence in North and South America, purchasing remounts. The argument in both cases is that it will ■pay a farmer who breeds at all to devote his attention to pedigree stock rather than to neglect that class. Mr Matthews urges this view on general grounds, and by specific arguments. One broad fact which does not admit of dispute is that few farmers' in Great Britain have withstood the bad times as well as those who have .had wellestablished flocks and herds. This is almost an axiom. It is so apparent that proof is unnecessary. The reason for this is the solid one that it is as easy to feed a pedigreed animal as an unpedigreed one ; and Mr Matthews rightly argues also ITiat there is no necessity for the owner of pedigrea stock wasting them by over-feed-ing. The showvard fashion, not the pedigree, is responsfole for over-feeding. Mr M;attlie.w§ discusses at some 1-cngtli

t^e meaning of p.'digree, and shows that "pedigiee" and "pin-cbied" are not synonymous terms. Registers must have a stand d ai — th<? lire must be drawn somewhere. All that fii ds it-, place in the record is not of equal value It is for the individual breeder to so master his business as tobe able to distinguish the le<-s valuable and the more valuable in pedigree-. The example" given of tennnt farmers in England who adopted this course are altogether encouraging. One many vet r^ ago purchased three co^ s with good pedigrees. He mated them intelligently, and went on year by year increasing pnd improving his> stcck of their descendants. At length, without the purchase of a single female, the! h-erd had become overcrowded, and recently an auction sale was held. The results were altogether satisfactory, tb~e animals offered making fully two-thirds more xuan they would have made had pedigree not been carefnllv studied and recorded. In hf>rd ca«h this farmer's little speculation with, the three cows resulted in his securing a clear profit of at least £1000. Another farmer, -o hen a young man, started business in the Thames Valley. He began with a. useful lot of dairy shorthorn cows. They were without pedigree, but good sorts. Steadily for years he mated them and their descendants, carefully recording; dates of b-rth and parentage in a private register. One by one his stock came to full registi'ation, and now he comes befoie

the Avorld with a herd of 400 p-edigrce cattle, worth at lea«t 100 per cent, mnre than they would have been if he hart neglected pedigree. His h^rd during all tnese rears has been conducted like an ordinary dairy herd. He has expended no money in unnecessary feeding. He has singly paid careful attention to breeding, and used only well-selected pedigree bulls. The lessons are obvious and applicable to all classes of stock.

ALr Se.ssions's essay is an illustration of how these piinciples may be applied to horF.es. He tells us that, alike in North and in South America, the roaming herd* of half-wild animals are being moulded into more useful types. The means employed are well-bred sires, and usually ths Clydesdale is the favourite stallion. Thousands of mares are being mated with sires selected in thib way, and when once a start is made with a sire of one breed, that breed is adhered to in successive generations, so as to fix a type. Mr Sessions suggests that greater attention should be paid to the handling of horses. American, driving horses are proverbially reliable and docile. This is due to the fact that the foals run alongside their dams even wlisn they are being driven into the towns in their owner's busrgies. A small establishment turns out better-handled colts than a large one. Soundness is of equal importance with pedigree, and farmers should be as anxious to avoid the use of an unsound sire as of a badly-bred one.