The requirements are as worked out on page 345. Then, instead of the work on page 346, the ration may be written down directly from Table III as follows:

The total nutriment, 17,635 pounds, is slightly different here from that on page 346, because in computing Table III from Table I the fourth decimal place was dropped, while in calculating the ration on page 346 it is retained. When the shorter method is used, rations may be calculated very rapidly. The nutritive ratio of the ration is calculated as in the first method, on page 346.

The above ration meets the factors which, it has been said, must be considered. Other illustrative rations follow, in order to show the shorter method for computing rations for all classes of stock.

FIRST PRINCIPLES IN BREEDING *

F. S. PEER, Ithaca, N. Y.

Author of Soiling Ensilage and Stable Construction

It is generally conceded that all varieties of domestic animals have a common ancestry in some wild breed of the same species or family.

Domestic horses, cattle, sheep and swine are very much improved, and quite different in conformation and other characteristics today, than the wild beasts of the forest, mountain and plain from whom they descended.

While all the varieties of wild animals known have remained practically the same to this day as they were in the earliest history and tradition of man, the improvements, the great changes that have come about among the families of domestic animals have all happened, not only during modern history, but principally within the last 200 years. In fact, the first real departure or intelligent effort made by man in the breeding of cattle for improvement in England, began only about 150 years ago.

Wild animals have gone on for countless ages and are still going on with no perceptible change or variations except in minor particulars, such as acquiring heavier coats, thicker hides, heavier bones, and coarser horns in the colder climates of the north, than animals of the same family that inhabit the warmer sections.

As soon however as these wild horses, cattle, sheep, and swine, come under domestication, (especially when attended with liberal feeding and better care) we at once note changes that are quite phenomenal.

“Like begets like " is a very ancient axiom among breeders and one that is often repeated to this day, but it cannot be strictly true. Otherwise our domestic animals would have remained the same today as the wild animals from whence they descended. But under domestication, wonderful changes have taken place. From the wild horses weighing 700 to 900 pounds to the

* Condensed by the author from two chapters of his coming book, The Breeding and Management of Farm Stock.

ponderous Shire, Clyde, Suffolk, Belgium, etc., weighing from 2,000 to 2,500 pounds; from wild cattle weighing 500 to 700 pounds to the magnificent Shorthorns and Herefords, that tip the scales at a ton or more; from the wild hogs weighing from 150 to 200 pounds to some of our modern domestic families that require, when fitted, half a ton weight to balance them; from wild sheep weighing 40 to 50 pounds to some of our improved mutton breeds ranging from 200 to 300 and even 400 pounds; from the Merino sheep that in their native hills of Spain shear four to five pounds of wool per head, (that have improved but little above that clip to the present day in their native mountains) but which have been so improved that within less than one hundred years of better care and feeding they have been made to produce as high as 30 and even 40 pounds of wool in a year's growth; from wild cows that suckled their young for three or four months of the year and then became dry, to any number of animals in any of the great dairy families with authentic records of from 1,000 to 1,500 pounds of milk per month, or 10,000 to 12,000 pounds of milk for a year, (ten to twelve times their own weight) and producing in extreme cases over 1,000 pounds of butter within the

year.

Such have been the wonderful changes that have been brought about in our domestic animals, roughly speaking, within the last 200 years, and generally speaking, within the last one hundred years. This forces us to the conclusion that like does not always produce like; that there are exceptions. We are also forced to the conclusion that as these great changes have all come about with animals under domestication, man alone is responsible for them, and that had these different families of domestic animals continued in their wild state, they would have remained to this day like other wild animals that have not lent themselves to domestication.

These great changes have not been confined to greater weight of carcass, and production, for it must be remembered also, that these most perfectly formed domestic animals of today are the direct descendants of the very ungainly looking beasts; and that it is owing to the skill of the breeder that they have been improved in form, beauty, color, symmetry, markings, family characteristics, and all that goes toward producing and perfecting the ideal.

Just now we should like to discover, if possible, what it is that man has done, how he has accomplished these wonderful changes, so pronounced, so wonderful and so beautiful. It would almost seem that these wild animals in their association with men have been like potters' clay, subject to the skilful manipulation of the owner or person who has directed their mating. If man is responsible for all these changes, what agency has he employed? If like has not begotten like in our domestic animals, and the changes are owing to man, when during the life of these animals, has it come within man's power to produce these changes? It would seem if we are able to discover the agency or leverage and the time in the life of the animals when the improvement takes place, we should have the key to the situation; we should be able to discover the secrets of the breeder's skill; in other words the art and science of breeding for improvement.

Let us take one step at a time, and note first the agency employed and, later, the time when it is within the power of man to produce the elevation. I want to go very carefully and very thoroughly into these two questions, for they seem to me to be the very heart and soul of the whole question and the secret of success in breeding.

or

It was given to the immortal Blackwell, who was born in 1726, and who died as late as 1795, to demonstrate as never before, what could be done by way of moulding and fashioning his animals (cattle), first in the line of earlier maturity, and afterwards, as to easy fattening qualities, beauty, and symmetry perfection of form. He also soon began talking about the "increased quantity of the best or highest-priced cuts of meat," "weight in the right place" as he styled it. Finally, finding his efforts in these particulars successful, he began to pay more attention to other matters such as "the barrel form" (well sprung ribs). "The smaller the bone the truer the shape," etc.

It has been claimed by some that the secret of his success died with him; such remarks are heard even to this day. Blackwell is said to have been a very reticent man, which trait probably confirmed the general impression that he possessed some great secret. It was no secret, even granting he might have been pleased to create that impression, it was only a discovery. Not only was the

work taken up by others of his day, but many of his followers even surpassed him. I need hardly mention the name of Booth or Bates, and others who followed so closely in the trail marked out by Blackwell not only in accomplishing all that he has done in early maturity, easy fattening qualities, etc., but in taking more special pains in other matters, such as symmetry of proportion balance, small incurving horns, fineness of bone, color, markings, the quality of the hair, the handling of the hides, etc.; in fact everything that added to the beauty, carriage and the quality of

FIG. 88. THE DAIRY TYPE.

the descendants, or tended towards producing the most perfectly formed animals conceivable to man.

When we consider the ungainly beasts these farmers and breeders had to start with, and note what a wide gulf now separates the most perfect specimens of the breed from the animals Blackwell had for a foundation, the transition is nothing short of marvelous.

Now as to the agency that made these things possible. In a word it was feed and plenty of it. Blackwell not only laid the foundation of the Shorthorn family by high breeding but he was