STOCK NOPTES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 26, 15 September 1911, Page 8

STOCK NOPTES.

THE REAL VALUE OF A PEDIGREE.

Tiie amount ol’ emphasis or value to pLiee upon the pedigree is m'len a vexing problem. The beginner with pure-bred stock, or the man who buys pure-bred sires for grade females, is apt to place entirely too much emphasis upon pedigree alone, and to discredit individual merit in the animal. t

The first value of a pedigree concerns the matter of prepotency. By prepotency is meant the power of the parent, either male or female, to impress and leave its qualities end characters upon the offspring. Prepotency is just as strong in leaving un desirable characters upon the offspring as it is to leave the desirable ones; .-in animal who has any certain desirable features, and whose parents have the same, will possess some probability of impressing those characters upon bis offspring. If his ancestors back for several generations have poioesstd those saipe characters, he is ill the more likely to transmit them to his offspring. Thus, a pedigree enables a breeder to learn something of the ancestors of his breeding animals. And, kn owing something about the ancestors, ho can judge to ,a considoiable extent what kind of offspring no is likely to secure.

The pedigree will show, if one knows the animals in the ancestry, cr can learn something about them-- along what lino or toward what type the .animal has been bred. Talco shorthorns for an example. If the uncostry has been bred for dairy or dual purpose characteristics, the animal is most likely to breed dual purpose or dairy offspring. On the other hand, if the ancestry, since the time of Cruickshank, have been selected for heefmaking tendencies, the offspring will, in the majority of cases, possess heefmaking tendencies. An example of extremes in type in different breeds may ho cited. The English Shire horse has been selected for Agenerations for the definite purpose of producing a low, down, thick, heavy draught horse . The thoroughbred, on the other hand, has been bred fog speed, and the slender body and rather upstanding qualities that go with speed. As everyone would expect, the Shire will sire colts similar in conformation to himself. This will be true because ho has a long lino of ancestry back of him that was of a similar type. Likewise, the thoroughbred will bogot animals of his own general type, because that is the kind of breeding hack to him. A pedigree, then, enables a man to learn something of the characteristics of the ancestry and to judge with some degree of accuracy of the value of the animal as a future breed-

Tn the mating of animals, individual merit should receive first attention, and pedigree second. To reverse the order, and put pedigree first, usually results in disaster. Nearly every breed has suffered by' such a practice. There arc many owners of pure-bred stock—wo dislike to call them breeders—who decide upon mating of males and females entirely upon their pedigree. Such men have never accomplished much in live stock improvement. The sooner they can get nut of the deep rut of error, and will place individual merit first, and pedigree a close second, the sooner will success crown their efforts. The practice is wrong, because it does not take into consideration the strong or the weak points of the animals. Two might ho mated together that possess some weakness, whereas each should have been mated with an animal specially strong in that particular, in order that the offspring may not possess the same weakness. Placing individuality of the .animal first in importance would select an animal desirable in itself; then, seeing that ho has a p'edigree that will make him prepotent in those desirable charactors scorns to j he about the best practice that caul ho followed. Some animals arc selected individually, but prove to lie failures as breeders. There may lie several reasons to account for that, such as improper care, or overfeeding for sale or r.liow. Yet, after giving all duo credit to those pauses and others, it is 1 safe to say that those animals that just “happened” to bo outstandingly good ones, and which do not have’animals of similar type and charactcris- ■ ics back of them in their blood lines are in no wise as prepotent as those! which have desirable blood ■ lines, j Many men who buy males that’ are: most excellent individuals arc disappointed in the results. In such cases it not infrequently happens that the animal in question was the first in bis whole pedigree to lie an exceptionally good one. A pedigree in itself does not prove anything in regard to the excellence of the animal. It merely shows that its ancestors are- of that particular breed. It does not prove nor indicate that the animal in quosion has my excellence whatsoever. Too many make the mistake-'of thinking that: because an,animal has a pedigree that fie is of superior merit. Ho may he, but the mere fact of his having a pedigree does not prove it. If the animal first has the imTvidmil excellence desired, then a blood line as shown by his pedigree that indicates that he will ho a prepotent sire,' ho. will bo the proper one to select to bead the herd.—H. E. McCartney, ; ‘Mich iga n Fa nnor. ”

A PI.EA FOR TrtE SIMPLE DIET.

LM MODERATE A DM IXTURES BA D. To return to nature is not always nif.y, even when we know what nature would have us do. Habit, it has hcon said, ir. second nature, and nowhere is this more true than in •aline;—-the oldest haoit. Hut ii' improvement is desirable it must he

most desirable in eating, which underlies all life processes, and yet change, says Dr T. J. Allen, in the course of a very reasonable paper, should he made only after careful consideration, and then with all due deliberation. Beef is digested chiefly in the stomach by the action of the gastric fluid. When reduced to a lino pulp by mastication before entering the stomach, it tends to pass out before being pro* perly digested, for the pylorus (the valve which connects the stomach witi; the intestines) tends to open when the food is. sufficiently reduced by the movement of the stomach and the action of the gastric fluid. ; Hence many authorities say that meat should lie bolted as the dog swallows Jus meat in largo lumps. This is scientifically correct, but the very opposite is true of bread and 'potatoes. 1 , Flesh digests in from three to five hours'; rice remains in the stomach about one hour. When flesh and rice are oaten at the same meal, there is a conflict. The meat and rice arc completely mixed by the movement of the stomach. If now the homogeneous mass is retained four hours, the rice undergoes fermentation. If the meat is carreid into the intestines within two hours its digestion must he imperfect, failing to receive the proper supply of gastric fluid—an error which cannot ho fully corrected by further digestion in the intestines. Much as this important phase of dietetics, continues Dr Allen,, has been nbglected 1 by the medical profession', invalids are’ 1 never put upon a bi-diet, much less upon a mixture of several Todds',l'•ho'vvetcr easily digested.' Beef is : one of tile •commonest invalid diets, bdeatrsti! it is; almost pure proteid (nitrogehoits matter), digesting easily in the stomach. Rice, 85 per cent starch, is a common invalid’s diet, but 1 meat and rice would not bo prescribed to'lie eaten together. CONFLICTING DIGESTIONS. Proteid foods (meats, eggs, beans, etc.) digest principally in the stomach ; carbonaceous foods (fruit, potatoes, cereal foods, etc.) principally in the intestine. When these classes of foods are mixed there is a conflict which must have a disquieting effect upon the system. It is natural to suppose that a hungry animal, under natural conditions, would confine itself to one kind of food. Neither man nor the pig is naturally omnivorous. Acorns arc the natural food of then pig, which, like man, becomes a prey to an almost infinite variety of diseases when ho becomes by force of circumstances omnivorous. A high authority on the diseases of the pig says that they are due to its being fed upon the waste human foods from our tables.-

It is a paiticular fact that the digestive organs of the pig very closely resemble those of man. Acorns and few roots are the natural food of the wild pig. In his natural state there is no healthier animal; and in his domesticated state hone more pitifully diseased, except, perhaps, man. Pavlov, the Russian physiological chemist, has shown that the system adapts itself to 1 the digestion of the food while it is in the mouth, the character of the digestive lluids sccrc- . ■( • *n; j ted varying with the food. How bewildered it must bo I by a ten-course dinner, offering perhaps fifty different articles of food!

Considering these facts, we must conclude, argues our authority, that serious injury is done to the system by eating a variety of foods at the same meal. Perhaps we may find hero the hitherto unaccountable reason for the shortness of human life. And if this be the cause, we must find all the noted cases of longevity among those jieopio whose diet is the simplest. Motchnikoff has found the largest percentage of centenarians among the Hungarian peasants,’ living largely on black bread (our informant forgets the Hungarian habit of indulging in sour milk, and its life-prolonging value.—Ed.) Among the Irish peasantry, living chiefly on potatoes, centenarians are numerous. The noted cases of longevity have all been among the peasantry, living on a very simple diet. The most noted of centenarians, Cornaro, the Venetian, prolonged life 60 years by restricting his diet to a Uniform' quantity of eggs and unfermented wine almost exclusively. ■Several monodiet tests recently made under Dr Allen’s direction showed as would 'naturally he expected, if the primHplofe above stated are true, remarkable'(results. Edgar Brohst, a foimdryinan, eating only beans for 'sfsihv (days) gained eight pounds in weight, working Sundays, two nights arid shvfcral evenings extra during the period. On a forty days’ diet of oatmeal there was a gain of three pounds nd better general conditions of health. On returning to his former mixed diet, Brohst lost four pounds in ten days. (An exclusive diet of beans would be injurious, and in no,ease is a one-sided diet of beans, moat, or anything else advisable.) —“Popular Science Siftings.”