Dear Dr. Purdy: Thank you for your recent letter. It is indeed helpful.
Please enter my name now as one of the prospective purchasers, at the proper time, of a couple of Penn State heifers bred to that outstanding bull of yours. I gather from your letter that it may be a considerable time before you can offer these animals for sale.1
Upon receipt of your letter I telephoned to the farm to direct the Kirstie and Mallardine heifers be held, without breeding, until we could send them to you. I discovered the following:
(a) the Kirstie heifer was bred by artificial insemination to Slater's Eva Bandolier Lad.2
(b) the Mallardine heifer is still too young; I believe she is just slightly over a year old.
However, I have two or three of the very good ones still unbred and there is a great possibility that the Kirstie may yet prove to be not settled (we have had very poor luck with artificial insemination). I have the Mignonne heifer and Tacaro Pride II. Moreover, I believe that my Bosta Blackbird (from Mr. Gall) showed another failure in artificial insemination.3 From this group, if you would indicate the two you might prefer to mate with your bull, I will continue to hold them out.
General Nevins will be in communication with Allan Ryan, and I think will make some arrangements for this summer's breeding of our cows. However, I do appreciate your offer to be of help in this regard and if anything turns up, I shall let you know instantly.4
I was particularly impressed by what you had to say about the people who forget all about the immediate ancestors of an individual merely to get a name like Cherry Blossom or Barbarosa or so on. I brought up this point when I wrote to Mr. Byars and said it was important to look through the entire background of a heifer he was buying.5 It is clear that a name can be completely nullified by some undesirable blood introduced along the line.
Please write to me whenever you think you have hold of something in which I might be interested--and it is hard to think of anything connected with the Angus industry in which I am not interested.
Thank you again for your letter, and with warm regard, Sincerely
P.S. The book on families arrived late this afternoon.6 I shall study it with the greatest interest--many thanks!
