WHAT IS A GRADE?

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 7, 3 January 1913, Page 7

WHAT IS A GRADE?

The interest shown in the improvement in live stock has brought about a reckless use of the term “grade.” In the cattle line there are virtually left only two classes, purebreds and grades, while the native, or animal of nondescript breeding, it would seem, has disappeared. The term “grade” in its proper sense is meant to apply to the immediate offspring of a purebred animal. This means that it is at least one-half purebred. A half-breed bred to a native or even another half-breed is in no sense a grade, and people looking for good breeding should not be deceived into thinking everything is a grade. It has become the common practice to call all brown or roan animals grade Shorthorns, and anything that is black and white in colour a grade Holstein. These colours are verypersistent in breeding, and they v.vil frequently be carried by an animal that has absolutely no light io be considered a grade, but cn the other lunu is too frequently a i. ere ‘ scrub.”

Where the mischief of this rockhs.v use of the term ‘“grade” comes in (states the Dairyman) is with the man who is not familiar with breeding principles. He will buy a lot of black and white cattle under the assumption that they are grade Holsteins and consequently well bred, only to find out that as producers they fall in the scrub class. When a man tells you that a lot of cows are grades, demand details, and if he cannot prove that they are at least half purebred of tire breed claimed he is practising deception.