or flock must be of equal excellence
or at all events sufficiently good for the production of profitable
commercial stock. Action on this mistaken belief has led to much
disappointment in the past, since the home bred animals may have been of
totally different blood from those which have won prizes, and further
they may not be inbred for a sufficiently long time on distinct lines to
render them prepotent enough to impress their good qualities on their
produce.

Amongst the objections made to cross-breeding is the heavy cost of
replacing the breeding stock, as to obtain a first cross, a succession
of sires and dams must be purchased. Many persons meet this difficulty
by merely buying sires of a breed similar to the first used, but then
the produce ceases to be cross-breds and become grades until such time
as by the use of a certain number of sires of a similar breed the
produce become eligible for entry in the herd book of the sires which
have been continuously used. This system of breeding insures a greater
uniformity in the produce providing that the sires selected are of
similar breeding, type, and character, than even by the system of
crossing sire and dam of two pure breeds.

The risk attending too close breeding as in the breeding of pure breds
is also avoided provided that the herd from which the sires are bought
is sufficiently large to furnish a change of blood, yet of similar
breeding.

No one possessing a knowledge of the ordinary farm stock of the country
will for one moment deny that there is still vast room for improvement
in our live stock, and particularly in our pigs, and it is equally the
fact that our Government has not shown a readiness equal to that of some
foreign Governments, and even of the authorities in some of our colonies
to assist farmers in obtaining the use of improved sires. Take Canada as
an instance. For years the Dominion Live Stock Branch has been
purchasing and delivering free into districts needing them, male animals
for the use of farmers and stock owners free, save stallions, for which
a covering fee has to be paid sufficient to cover the insurance of the
stallion. The other important condition which relates to all the sires
provided by the authorities is that the cost of maintenance shall be
paid by the Local Association which has the management of the sire and
the arrangement of its services.

Another noticeable point is that all the sires allocated to the various
districts