Breeding farm animals

Front matter

BREED!

■Ill I

Copyright )J^

Chap. Ii.— American Stock Breeding

European Stock in America — The American Trotter — Draft Horses from Europe — Coach Horses — Cattle Importations — Advent of Breeds of Sheep — American Breeds of Swine — Hindrances to Stock Raising — Proportion of Registered Stock — Need of Good Stock — State Aid — Federal Aid — Breeders' Opportunities 22 — 31

Chap. Iii.— Heredity

Secrets in Breeding — Indefinite Expressions of Breeders — Results of Experience — Bakewell's Principles — Breeders' Desideratum — Hereditj' — Heredity has a Physical Basis 32—39

Chap. Iv.— Facts Concerning Reproduction

Female Reproductive Organs — Male Reproductive Organs — Essentials of Conception — Barrenness — Sterility — Number of Services — Size of Litter — Influence of Sire and Dam 40—47

CHAP, v.— THE GERM CELLS.

Cell Growth — The Chromatin — The Chromosomes — Preparation of the Germ Cells — Significance of the Chromosomes — Fertilization 48 — 58

CHAP. VL— THE HEREDITARY MATERIAL.

Scientists and Breeders — Inheritance Through Chromosomes — Possible Chromosome Combinations in Ovum — Possible Chromosome Combinations in Spermatozoa — Equally Probable Results of Fertilization — • Why Related Animals Differ— Basis of Controlling

CHAP. VII.— ORIGIN OF THE HEREDITARY MATERIAL.

The Problem — Necessity and Value of Theory — Darwin's Theory — An Opposite View — Pangenesis — Continuity of Germ Plasm — The Explanations Compared — Relation of Practice to the Theories 65—

CHAP. VIII.— BREEDING AND SELECTION.

Basis of Control of Heredity — Why Offspring Resembles Parents — Ancestry and Prepotency — How Atavism May Occur 73 — 78

CHAP. IX.— INDIVIDUAL EXCELLENCE IN BREEDING ANIMALS.

Foundation Stock — Types — Value of Type — Need of Full Study — Breeder must be a Judge — Prepotency — Character — Significance of Character — Age and Prepotency — Fancy Points 79 — 92

CHAP. X.— PEDIGREES OF BREEDING ANIMALS.

Progeny the Best Test — Form of Pedigree — All Ancestors Must be Studied — Breeding Records of Parents — Similarity of Type in Parents — Value of Show Awards — Fair Estimate of Sire — Advanced Registers — Obscured Merit — Grandparents — Near and Remote Ancestors — Fashion and Family Names — Significance of Breeders' Names — Correctness of Pedigrees 93 — 110

CHAP. XL— THE OFFSPRING DURING GESTATION.

Relation of Foetus to Dam — Effect Upon Foetus of Maternal Impressions — Need of Care in Management — Nutrition of Offspring — Feeding the Dam — Growth of Bovine Foetus — Influence of a Previous Impregnation 111—120

CHAP. XII.— DEVELOPMENT OF YOUNG STOCK.

What Constitutes Environment — Improved Stock for Improved Environment — Feeding Must Support Breeding — Feeding While Young — Good Care Aids Selection — Transmission of Effects of Environment — Biologists on Transmitted Development — Acquired Development in Trotters — Claimed Transmission of Acquired Development — Inheritance Not Related to Sire's Age — How Development Aids Selection — Actual Role of Environment 121 — 136

TABLE OF CONTENTS 7

CHAP. XIII.— DETERMINATION OF SEX.

Influence of Time of Breeding — Influence of Body Conditions — Alternating Ova — Influence of Stronger Parent — Effect of Nutrition — Experimental Evidence — Experiments with Butterflies — The Evidence from Bees — Sex Probably Determined at Conception — The Accessory Chromosome — Significance of the Accessory Chromosomes — Undesirability of Sex Control.. 137 — 148

CHAP. XIV.— FOUNDATION AND MANAGEMENT OF A BREEDING BUSINESS.

Breeding an Art — The Breeder's Personal Equipment — Judging Ability — Impartiality Essential — Value of Breed History — Salesmanship — Advertising — Executive Ability — Wealthy Breeders — Location — Home Grown Feeds — Strain More Important Than Breed — Starting from Market Stock — Not How Many, But How Good — Cheap Foundation Stock — Merit in Both Parents Essential — The First Sire — The Second Sire — Phenomenal Sires — Culling the Females — Uniformity in Females — Value of Long Established Herds 149—166

CHAP. XV.— INBREEDING AND LINE BREEDING.

Inbreeding Defined — Line Breeding — Opposition to Inbreeding — Thomas Bates and Inbreeding — Barrenness in Early Duchesses — Swine Statistics — Laboratory Experiments — Benefits of Inbreeding — American Hereford Breeding — The Gentry Berkshires — The Principle of Inbreeding — Inbreeding per se — Risk in Out Breeding — When to Inbreed 167—187

CHAP. XVI.— MENDEL'S LAW.

Breeding in the Future — Beginnings of New Characters — Mutation — Polydactylous Guinea Pigs — DeVries Experiments — Cause of Mutation — Cross Breeding for New Characters — Mendel — Mendel's Experiments — Mendel's Law — How Mendelian Proportions Occur — Purity of Gametes — Mendelism in Animals — Unit Characters — Application of Mendel's Law — Limitations of Mendelism — Non-Mendelian Characters — Need of Breeder's Records 188 — 208

CHAP. XVII.— BREED RELATIONS.

The Place of Breeds — Evolution of Types — Need for Numerous Breeds — Distribution of Breeds — Community Breeding — Value of Shows — Basis of Awards — Ad-

8 - BREEDING FAR:\I ANIMALS

vanced Registration — Registration in the Future — Cross Breeding- — Crossing Types — Pure Breeds for Crossing — Limits of Improvement — Effects of Injudicious Breeding — Breeding for Vigor and Prolificacy 209 — 221

CHAP. XVIII.— BREEDERS' ASSOCIATIONS.

Origin of Registration — Advantage of Single Registers — Conduct of Herd Books — Relation of Government — Canadian Registration Affairs — Eligibility to Registration — Other Functions of Breed Associations. .222 — 230

CHAP. XIX.— HORSE BREEDING.

Place of the Draft Horse — Cities Set Prices — Earlier Draff Horse Affairs — American Breeding — The Depression — The Revival — Advantages of Foreign Breeders — Stallion Raising — Influence of the Auto-Truck — Breed for top of Market — Draft Types — M'arket Discrimination — Breeding Carriage Horses — Good Breeding an Essential — Breeding Trotters 231 — 247

CHAP. XX. — CATTLE BREEDING.

Influence of the Range — Beef and Valuable Lands — . American Progress in Herefords — Evolution of Types — Early Maturity and Size — Advance of Dairying — Advantages of Dairying — Professional and Commercial Breeders — Superiority for Dairy Purposes- Breed Tests — Advances in Dairy Breeding — Form and Function — Extra Influence of Sire — Testing Breeding Cows ■ -IS — 265

CHAP. XXL— SHEEP BREEDING.

Environment for Sheep — Economy of Sheep Raising — English Shepherding — Pedigrees not to be Ignored — Breed Type — Fine Wools in America — Maintaining the Type 266—277

CHAP. XXIL— SWINE BREEDING.

Need of Improvement — Breed Building — Extremes Needed — Results of Extremes^Show Type — Opening for More Breeds — Mixing Types — Continuity in Farm Breeding — Conservative Breeders — Breeders' Reward 278 — 287

Preface

Stock-farming Is growing more popular both in theory and in practice. A scientific study of crop production makes clear the necessity of feeding the crops on the farm and the market conditions have afforded encouragement to the breeders and feeders of good stock.

In crop-growing and in stock-feeding, much practical aid has been furnished by the scientists, notably the chemists. The breeders naturally look to the biologists for assistance, but up to the present any directions they may have received have been quite indefinite and not always practical ones.

Notwithstanding the contrary hopes of some earnest and sanguine investigators, it does not seem that the breeding of animals can ever be made an occupation of wholly certain results. Professional breeders of long experience control quite largely the inheritances of their animals. The most that the non-professional or the beginning breeder can hope to accomplish through study is to acquaint himself with the guideposts familiar to those discerning persons who have reached success along the same road.

The main object of this book is to direct attention away from profitless speculations that have necessarily characterized some earlier books, and to stimulate interest in the more tangible, the physical basis of heredity. A

10 UKEEDING FARM ANIMALS

scientific study of the physical aspects of heredity leads to conclusions that fully accord with the teachings of the work of our master breeders. It has been the aim to limit discussion to points upon which scientific opinion is quite well agreed, though this has not been altogether possible. Free consultation of the references cited will give a deeper acquaintance with scientific aspects of the question.

I am particularly indebted to Professors F. L. Landacre and H. W. Vaughan for the assistance they have given me. Since this manuscript was prepared "Physiology of Reproduction" has come from the pen of F. H. A. Marshall, D.D. This is a most valuable treatise and contains much to add definiteness to the subjects treated in Chapters IV and V.

F. R. MARSHALL.

Ohio State University.

INTRODUCTION.

It has been said that agriculture is the foundation of all commerce. The records of advances in agriculture parallel quite closely those of national advancement. The ability to adapt the gifts of nature to the needs of rnan is well exemplified in the changes that have been effected in the domestic animals that play so important a part in the sustenance of the nation.

Domestic animals and their products occupy a very important place in the commerce of the United States. At the close of the first decade of the twentieth century the value of animal products sold from and consumed on farms was equal to one-third of $ioo for every memper of the population of the entire country. This has no regard for the large value of work horses used in both city and country. There are numerous reasons for believing that stock raising will hold a much more prominent place in the future than it has in the past in American agriculture.

A contrast of our conditions with those obtaining in older countries shows that a part of our trade is based upon the fact that we still have considerable areas of low-priced lands upon which we rear stock at a cost that permits other nations to buy from us. But with the ultimate occupation of all our lands which are arable, this inequality of conditions affecting production must disappear. It is impossible to fully foresee future conditions, but the opinion seems general and not unreasonable that in considerable part our methods must so change as to result in the production of a large proportion of dairy products. The prosperity of such thickly populated countries as Holland and the Island of Jersey, in which dairy farming is the chief interest, adds much force to this idea, though it must be considered that in those countries a minimum of the labor is performed by hired help. The cornbelt enjoys peculiar natural advantages favoring the growth of its chief crop and it seems likely that for some time to come this section will furnish an important part of the world's supply of meats and of lard.

For every demand for animals for service or as sources of food and clothing there has been produced a special kind of animal. This has also extended to the production of means of recreation and display, as shown in our lighter classes of horses, much of whose service is not immediately connected with trade or ordinary necessities of living. In addition to supplying expressed demands for consumption the work of breeding and adaptation has furnished breeds and families, each characterized by special propensities that peculiarly adapt them to conditions having to do with the economy of production in some particular section or under some particular system.

The group of breeds comprising each of our common classes of stock — horses, cattle, sheep and swine — have sprung from a small number of types of original progenitors rendered somewhat distinct by habits and char-

INTRODUCTION 13

acteristics which enabled them to survive the rigors and vicissitudes of natural conditions. When viewed as a whole the work of the separation and perfection of so many separate and distinct types from so few natural types appears as a task impossible to human agency even in an indefinite length of time. When we recall that the chief part of this accomplishment covers less than 200 years the marvel grows and an understanding of the principles involved becomes extremely desirable. When we also consider the fact that a large and increasing majority of the agricultural population is chiefly engaged in the production of such animals and that much skill and application are required to maintain the present state of excellence of these numerous breeds, the interest attaching to the principles involved takes on a more practical character. Add to this the further consideration that new breeds are still being added and the older ones are steadily evolving into more specialized and artificial forms, and the estimate of the practical importance of the question is still further heightened.

Chapter I. Earlier Stock Breeding

The first notable achievement in adapting; animals to human needs as related to our present-day industry was the development of the Arabian The Arabian horse. The occupation and manner Horse. of living common to the Arabian

tribes rendered them dependent upon the fleetness and stamina of their horses. Shorn of all exaggeration and romance which literature has attached to these horses it is undeniable that for their time they were well calculated to be at once the wonder and despair of other peoples. Realizing the great advantage enjoyed in the superiority of their horse, the Arabs very cleverly and wisely surrounded his rearing with an atmosphere of mystery and guarded against his dissemination so as to long retain for themselves the blood which had taken them so long to purify from the coarseness and variableness of its ancestors.

The peculiar location of France caused its early mon-

archs to especially interest themselves in the horse stocks

of their dominions. Because of the

French probability of being on unfriendly

Horse-Breeding. terms with adjoining countries from

which the French soldiery would

naturally be horsed it was endeavored to encourage and facilitate the rearing" and maintenance of superior horses in order that they might be available for the armies in times of war. Though seriously interrupted at intervals this national assistance to French horse-raising has been continued and was never more efficient nor extended than at the present time. With the exception of some aid to the improvment of fine-wooled sheep, similar aid has not been extended to the other classes of stock. The blood of the Arabian w^as considerably used at an early date to refine the coarser native stocks, but a principal factor in production of existing types of horses has been the demands for special types of service and the use for breeding* of those horses found most suitable to the demands of the prevailing kinds of labor. In later years the Arabian horse has been used but little.

England also drew from the stock of the Arabians in her work of perfecting the light horse for racing purposes, and the work was encouraged The by King James I, who imported

Thoroughbred. horses from the Orient in the early part of the seventeenth century.

The succeeding reign saw other and more numerous importations of eastern stock, but it was the performance of Eclipse, foaled in 1764 and a great-great-grandson of a horse imported in 1 706, which marked the supremacy of the British-bred horses on the race course. The progeny of other horses of the same period showed that, though indebted to the Arabian, the skillful methods of selection practiced by English breeders had produced a much superior animal for their purposes.

Whether or not early improvers of farm stock profited

EARLIER STOCK BREEDING 17

by the work of the horse breeders we cannot tell, but it was in the latter part of the British eighteenth century that there was

Stock, inaugurated a most notable im-

provement of British farm stock.

This era of stock improvement resulted in the origination of over a score of separate and distinct useful breeds of horses, cattle, sheep and swine, all well known in America today. American agriculture has drawn mainly on Britain for its live stock. That this is not due to an unreasoned preference for institutions of the mother country is shown by the patronage of continental breeders of Percheron horses, Holstein-Friesian cattle and Rambouillet sheep. Inasmuch as we still import from that small island, the area of which is scarcely equal to that of an average state, considerable numbers of six breeds of cattle, four of horses, nine of sheep and three of swine, the foundation of its animal husbandry is of more than ordinary interest. Although our chief interest is centered in events that transpired subsequent to 1760, it is not necessary to assume that animal husbandry was entirely chaos previous to that time.* British agriculturists of that day appreciated the relation of stock feeding to crop yields. It was recognized that the animals of some counties were quite distinct from those of other counties in their rate and manner of growth and fattening qualities. The necessity of using the best animals as breeders was understood and regarded by some, though it cannot be said that there was anything like a general application of that principle.

* For a full review of earliest breeding see Darwin, "Animals and Plants under Domestication," chapter 20.

The development of British breeds of Hve stock dates from 1760. It was at about this time that Robert Bakewell* assumed the management of Robert the estate on which his father and

ley in Leicestershire.

Although his most notable success was achieved with the sheep known as Bakewell or Dishley Leicesters, his W'Ork in the breeding of Longhorn cattle has been of inestimable value to all branches of the breeding industry. The practices he relied upon in his breeding of Longhorn cattle are still the mainstay of breeders throughout the w^orld.

The accomplishments of Bakewell served his entire country. His surplus stock became distributed through the adjoining counties, but of more InRiience of Bake- importance than this was the force ziell's Work. of his example and the spread of in-

formation regarding the marked improvement he had effected and his means of attaining his ends. With the need for stock raising becoming more and more apparent and the more discriminating demands of consumers of meats, the example of Bakewell lent an impetus to British stock interests which resulted in that country's reaching the foremost position wdiich she still occupies.

The earliest Short-horn breeders, the Colling brothers, were students of Bakewell's and aroused world-wide attention by the prices received at their sale in 18 10.

*The life and work of Bakewell is well described in an article in the 1894 Report of the "Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society."

EARLIER STOCK BREEDING 19

On the western side of England the cattle raisers of Herefordshire had produced a class of cattle adapted to their climate and system of raising, but the most effectual improvement was effected by men who were contemporaries of Bakewell or lived after his time.

In 1822 a start was made in recording the pedigrees of Short-horn cattle and a similar work for the Herefords was commenced in 1846. It Dates of Founding was not until 1862 that Scotch of the Breeds. breeders of Angus and Galloway cattle provided registration for their cattle though they had attained more than local eminence prior to that date. The Red Polled cattle of Norfolk and Suffolk counties were first recorded in 1874 and the Devons were recorded in 1851.

The improvement of the sheep stock seems to have followed more closely after the work of Bakewell than did that of cattle. It was upon his Leicester sheep that the fame of this great breeder of Dishley chiefly rested and it is not surprising that the shepherds should have been the first to emulate his example of improvement. Although we have a seeming profusion of breeds of British sheep, each was the result of the endeavors of breeders of a particular county to perfect a breed that would be the most economical producer under their conditions of climate and soil and their systems of cropping and feeding. Though there was some use of older breeds in some cases, still the distinguishing characteristics of size and color of face are mainly traceable to similar appearances that happened to be present in the original native stock. Although breeders of Leicesters were working in co-operation prior to the death of Bakewell, the system of registering pedigrees of sheep was not adopted until many years after most of the breeds had been developed and had earned a general popularity in their respective sections.

At an early date Gloucester and parts of adjoining shires has become known for the distinctive characteristics of the sheep native to that section. During the close of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century this breed, the Cotswold, received liberal infusion of the blood of the more refined and easy feeding Leicester. Considerable numbers of descendants of Bakewell's flock also found their way into neighboring shires to modify some of the weaker features of the stock that had been developed there.

By the close of the first quarter of the nineteenth century the farmers of the chalky hill lands of the shire of Sussex had, without resort to other blood, brought their sheep to a high order of utility. John Ellman and Jonas Webb did extraordinary service in the perfection of this breed, the Southdown, and though we cannot say what their familiarity with Bakewell's work was, the product of their efforts has been distributed even more widely than the stock reared at Dishley.

In succeeding years the Southdown sheep made a strong impression on those of Hampshire and still later the stock of Hampshire was drawn upon to mate with Cotswolds for the formation of a type with the most useful combination of characteristics for the agriculture of Oxfordshire, and the sheep bearing this latter name were admitted to separate classification at the 1862 show

EARLIER STOCK BREEDING 21

of the Royal Agricultural Society. Nine years previous the same recognition had been accorded the descendants of the native stock of Shropshire and Stafford, though such descendants owed much to the blood of both Leicester and Southdown.

The practical appreciation of the value of carefully bred stock that prompted the formation of so many breeds has never flagged. The limited size of the country and the large population, in spite of importation of food materials, have ensured remunerative prices for animals and their products and the general practice of selling animals rather than crops has sustained the yields from the soil. Practically all animals in every part of the island show a preponderance of ancestry of some of the breeds, and British agriculture is based no less upon the superiority of the farm animals than upon the spirit that would retain or use only the best that could be procured or produced.

Chapter II. American Stock Breeding

In America the development of our animal husbandry has afforded a marked contrast to the course of events in other lands. Colonists from vari- Eiiropcan Stocks ous European countries brought in America. with them such stock as was most

common to the section from wdiich they emigrated. This gave us horses of Spanish and French blood, cattle and sw^ine of Holland, Germany and contiguous territory. Also there came from Spain the progenitors of much of our stock of fine-wooled sheep. Some of the prominence of British breeds of stock must be attributed to the large number of British colonists, but for the chief part their strength of numbers and popularity has been earned on the basis of utility and adaptability to the rec[uirements of the various agricultural parts of the country.

As early as 1750, Virginia gentlemen brought from England running horses for racing and breeding. There being no place to which they could The American go for pronounced speed at the trot. Trotter. the American breeders early began

the study and sifting of their horses of mixed blood with a view of perpetuating and intensifying the sources of excellence in trotting speed. Though the Thoroughbred was a prominent factor at the Inception of the work and for some time afterward, the accompHshments are entirely accredited to American skill and enterprise.

It was not until the middle of the nineteenth century that the Percheron horse of France made its entrance into America. The history of Shires Draft Horses dates from about the same time, from Europe. while the Clydesdales invaded the field somewhat later. Our acquaintance with the Belgian is comparatively recent.

In the eighties the present type of the English Hackney obtained a foothold in America and was followed some years later by the French Coach and German Coach breeds. Numer-

Horses. ous horses of carriage type and

characteristics have occurred among the trotting stock and the United States Government now maintains a stud for the purpose of so combining the blood of such horses as to perpetuate their carriage qualifications. The Government also supports an attempt to preserve the type of horses descended from the famous Morgan horse of Vermont.

In cattle we had numerous valuable shipments of

Short-horns prior to 1820. and influential activities in

importing Short-horns into Ohio

Cattle began in 1833. The seventies saw

Tiiiportations. the attention of British breeders

centered upon America and some

considerable exportations of Short-horn blood were made

to England from America. Importations from abroad, though varying' in extent with conditions, have been continuous and are still quite common. From 1875 ^^ 1885 saw the rapid and hard-earned rise and spread of the Herefords and Angus, with the Galloway also making fast friends in sections to which its peculiar virtues commended it. In Herefords we have progressed to the point where we no longer feel the need of recourse to the foreign herds for aid in improvement, though importations of the other breeds mentioned are still common.

Our dairy breeds we have also brought from abroad and it is to the credit of America that her citizens have not been loath to profit by the results of the laborious efforts towards stock improvement in other lands. The breeds imported represent such combinations of characters of adaptability and special usefulness as to allow each part of the country and each class of production to have a breed at least fairly well suited to the peculiarities of the locality or demand.

It cannot be said that the breeds have been distributed, or are even now found, in such surroundings as their founders aimed to serve, but their career is yet so short that natural or reasonable distribution cannot now be expected. Selection and differences in ideals have produced t^^pes within breeds with many of the special features common to stock bearing another breed name. We have also established polled varieties of all but one of our imported horned breeds.

Spanish fine-wooled sheep were brought to America before the close of the eighteenth century and from their descendants we have produced an almost confusing number of so-called breeds or strains. These classes of Merinos exhibit as hig-li efficiency in the art of breeding as

is evidenced in the productions of

Advent of any other part of the world. Since

Breeds of Sheep. 1840 considerable numbers of the

Rambouillet sheep of France have

been brought in.

The English Leicester was known in America before the Revolutionary War, and several lots of the two other long-w^ooled breeds arrived subsequent to 1830. By the latter date the Southdown had also earned considerable popularity and the period between i860 and 1890 saw the establishment and wide distribution of the other down breeds, all of English origin.

Europe furnished America with no breeds of swine bred to the purpose of turning corn into lard, and we

have, therefore, three leading Amer-

Anierican Breeds ican breeds distinguished only by

of Szvine. such incidental characters as color

and by differences in utility, due to variations in length of standing and the standards of the breeders. These breeds have been descended from imported European stocks which could hardly be said to have been highly improved except in the instance of the Berkshire. In 1835 the Berkshire was established in the section that was to be the birthplace of the Poland-China. This English breed is still imported in small numbers, but the Berkshire of the cornbelt is more useful to that section than is the stocks as bred in England. For what we need of Yorkshires and Tamworths we draw upon England still. It was in 1872 that the National Swine Breeders' Convention adopted the name Poland-China for the hogs that originated in southwestern Ohio and were meeting with much favor. It was several years later that the Chester White was deemed a breed and the Duroc- Jersey received its name from its assembled breeders in 1883. Other breeds of American origin have been produced and retained in restricted areas.

When it is considered that most breeds of live stock have had their residence in America for less than half a century it is no cause for surprise to learn that a large proportion of farm animals bear no evidence of relationship to any breed. Only in the older sections has agriculture taken on anything like a permanent aspect. In such localities depleted soils have emphasized the need of live stock. In a smaller country the dependence of such areas on stock farming would long ago have forced out of existence all but such animals as could show themselves possessed of practical superiorities over all less carefully bred stock. The influx of cheaply raised western stock to supply the population Hindrances to of the East has seriously disturbed Stock Raising. the natural progress of agricultural affairs in the more densely peopled states. The western landowners and operators have had an exclusive interest in stock raising and have been in direct touch with the industry, both in the country and at market centers. It is therefore found that in our newer states in which crop-raising has not become general we have a higher average of domestic animals than in places where conditions demanded the best grades of stock but in which that stock could not be produced in competition with the operators of the new, cheap lands of western states.