Page:The Scientific Monthly vol. 3.djvu/34

 28 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

Taking these figures at their face valiie^ for the moment, they indi- cate that the average horse imported into the United States for breed- ing purposes is worth twice as much as the average horse on an American farm. The average cow or bull imported is worth four and a third times as much as the average cow or bull on the farm; while the average im- ported sheep is more than five and a quarter times as valuable as the home product on the farm.

These figures furnish an impressive object lesson as to the value of paying attention to the breeding of live stock. Fundamentally the en- hanced valuation of the imported animals rests on the fact that they are better bred than the average farm stock here. Their qualities all ap- proach the ideal more closely. But they have been brought to that con- dition by the practise of skilful, well-planned and carefully executed breeding.

The statistical data so far presented regarding the breeding industry have been drawn from official returns and cover the coimtry as a whole. They suffer from the defects of such statistics. Wbile they show the general relations in a substantially correct way, they tend to reduce to a minimum differences of all kinds. In the case of the last comparison made, the indicated difference in average valuation between farm and live stock and that imported for breeding purposes is probably distinctly less than the true difference. A better comparison, and one which not only shows what careful breeding means to the farmer and to the nation as a source of wealth, but also shows that the foreigner has no monopoly on the production of fine breeding stock, is between average farm values and the prices realized at auction dispersal sales of pedigreed stock in this country. Let us examine a few figures of this kind.

Table VIII° gives the average sale price of pedigreed beef cattle in all sales held in this country during the six years preceding 1913.

The increase of these prices over the $21.00 of the farm cattle is obvious. The same considerations apply to other kinds of stock. At a Guernsey cattle sale held in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, March 20, 1912, 69 head were sold at an average price of $377.26. Mr. H. E. Browning of Hersman, 111., sold 41 Duroc- Jersey swine "of his own breeding" on December 19, 1912, at an average price of $173 per head. The con- trast of this price with the $8.00 average on the farm is sufficiently striking.

The live-stock breeding industry of the world rests on a foundation of pure-bred pedigreed stock. The constant aim of the breeder from the earliest time has been to produce differentiated types particularly adapted to his locality, conditions and needs. Having once found or developed such a type, the breeder wishes to keep it. This he can only

B Compiled by the Breeders' Gaeetie and published in the issue of January 1, 1913.

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