THE ART OF BREEDING.

Otago Witness, Issue 3782, 7 September 1926, Page 12

THE ART OF BREEDING.

The art of breeding is based upon general principles which are readily enough understood, although ih may be difficult to put them into practice. Generally speaking, it is true that like begets like, so that the skill of the breeder is exercised in the mating together of animals whose respective qualities are such as it is desired to concentrate in the offspring. If a sheep-breeder finds he has “quality” in his flock, but that size is lacking, he endeavours to correct this defect by the use of rams which will give greater size without sacrifice of quality. Any defect in other classes of livestock is remedied on similar principles. There must surely be a fascination to the breeder of studs in endeavouring to breed stock to one’s ideal type, and holding fast to the strain of blood which does best, in preference to running all over the country for something better. How else could he stick to the game? The ordinary stock owner, in contrast to the born breeder, is too prone to select a male animal from the best showyard winning strain, or from the most advertised stock, or possibly pin his or her faith upon something, the progeny of imported stock, in an endeavour to secure what is termed fresli blood, irrespective of the damage which may occur from the use of foreign blood. They should, however, move warily in the matter, and not forget the importance of type in the animal, and, having found a breeder whose sires produce the class of stock they are striving to obtain, hold firmly and steadfastly by him, remembering that he is not a raw amateur, but that he is a man of brains, who lias made breeding a life study. The great breeders in the stock world carry on for years without taking an outcross, and market the individual members of a breed which are able to faithfully transmit their characteristics. In this respect, they sell stock which are what is termed “prepotent.” Here we may cite some interesting facts presented by a well-informed authority: Who lifted English stud stock into the forefront of the world’s markets? Bakewell. How did he do it ? Why, by in-breeding and selection, and he had the whole of England and Europe at his feet for sires. Mr Borden, the English Leicester breeder, did not allow an outcross for 70 years. Mr Torr also would consider nothing but straight Bakewell blood and straight Booth Shorthorns, and with what results ? He bred the most successful herd of Booth Shorthorns the world has ever known. Eighty-four head at a dispersal sale which represented 30 years of continuous breeding, averaged over £5lO each, and even Booths themselves had to make purchases at record figures to replenish their own herds. Then, in Southdowns, who made the name famous with everything the British farmers had to offer the world? It was Jonas Webb, who bred within liis own flock, and so concentrated were his blood lines and so prepotent were his" rams that every Southdown breeder in England was compelled to resort thither, and the same skill which he displayed in the establishment of the Southdown was shown in the selection and building up of his Shorthorns. It has befeii placed on record that if he had lived he would have been just as successful in evolving his own type of these cattle, as they gave far-reaching effects in their purchasers’ hands. Then, as to the concentration of blood lines, go back to the makers of Shorthorn history, the Collings, with whose extreme inbreeding and the results everyone is acquainted. Then take the Booths, who also were ardent inbreeds. They took four crosses of even-typed Collings’s bulls on good ordinary Shorthorn heifers, and after they had achieved uniformity of type they inbred the various families, with the result that their part in constructive

Shorthorn breeding stands second to none, not even the Collings. When they required an outcross they sent their best cows to noted outside bulls of similar type; thus came the celebrated sires Buckingham, Crown Prince, and Leonard, which enabled them to carry on for many years and sweep the showyards of England. None but Collings’s blood was good enough for Bates’s use, and special Collings’s blood at that, and all know how he procured Belvedere, the last bull of that line, and produced with him Duke of Northumberland, said to be the best Shorthorn bull ever bred in England. Cruickshanks had a large herd, and was a wanderer, hither and thither, for bulls, buying the best prize-winners of and Scotland for 30 years at record prices. No Shorthorn herd in the British Isles ever had such a galaxy of famous bulls at its head, and yet withal his herd was mediocre. Then he bred Champion of England, who threw back to type of Wilkinson of Gentom, through his sire, and on concentrating his blood through several generations, the herd assumed a superiority which has never been challenged; nay, more, it is admitted that Cruickshanks's blood has saved the Shorthorn from degeneracy. This is where Cruickshanks proved himself a born breeder, by concentrating the blood of a sire obtained after 30 years’ efforts, which came closely up to his ideal. Think of it—3o years of strenuous labour, and many great purchases before he obtained his first results!

Then look at the Clydesdales. Prince of Wales and Darnley, foaled in 1866 and 1872, are, as is well known, the corner-stones of the stud book of this famous breed, whose achievements during the last 30 years have been amazing, culminating in the celebrated sire Dunure Footprint, who is only five generations removed from Prince of Wales and Darnley, yet his blood and the blood of all the principal Clydesdales in existence is a more or less intricate mixture of these two sires. Indeed, so closely is it commingled that the question is seriously considered whether the limits of safe inbreeding have not almost been reached in this breed in Scotland. If we come nearer home, we may cite the remarkable progress of the merino in Australia. To-dav, her production makes the Commonwealth the world’s controlling factor in fine wools, and, therefore, in a measure, in all wools; yet in 1822 there were not more than 300 purebred merinos in all Australia. Their then average of some three pounds of wool per sheep has been improved so vastly in quality and increased so much in quantity that Australia leads the world in fine wools. New Zealand’s noted Corriedales feature to-day a remarkable development of the results of inbreeding by concentrated effort on the part of those men who visualised the importance of a dual-purpose sheep—one having the shapely body of, say, a Southdown, with the characteristic covering of a half-bred (Longwool-Merino). The best of these sheep make capital freezing carcases, whether shipped as lambs or wethers, and, in addition, shear several pounds of quality wool. Suffice it to add that although the finer points in connection with stock breeding must be left to the master breeders, it is possible for all owners of stock to improve their own animals, whether sheep, horses, or cattle, by careful selection of sires, and, within reason, adhering to those lines of blood which, experience teaches, provide the type of animal demanded by market conditions.