Goodale, Hubert Dana, 1879-1968

Hubert Dana Goodale was a pioneer and leader in poultry and cattle genetics. He spent most of his professional life, from 1922 to 1962, as the geneticist at the Mount Hope Farm in Williamston, Massachusetts.

From the description of Papers, ca. 1919-1956. (American Philosophical Society Library). WorldCat record id: 154298169

Hubert Dana Goodale (1879–1968) was a poultry and cattle geneticist. From 1922 to 1962, he was the geneticist at the Mount Hope Farm in Williamston, Massachusetts. His main areas of research were the genetics of poultry and milk production, the endocrines of poultry, and the nature of selection and its relation to evolution. Goodale was instrumental in the development of the notion of index breeding, which was based on the principle that demonstrated productive qualities transmitted by any given sire should determine which animals produced the best offspring.

Hubert Goodale was born in Troy, New Hampshire, the son of the Reverend David W. and his wife Mary L. Goodale. He attended Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, before enrolling at Columbia University. In 1913 he graduated with a doctorate in biology. During the final two years of his graduate work, Goodale conducted research at the Station for Experimental Evolution at Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island which had been established by the Carnegie Institution in 1904. Goodale subsequently accepted an appointment as research professor in the department of poultry husbandry at the Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station. In 1911 he introduced vital staining of the amphibian embryo as a method of tracing the fate of embryonic parts. Goodale left the Station in 1922 in order to become the geneticist at Mount Hope. He held this position for the remainder of his professional life.

Mount Hope farm was owned and managed by E. Parmalee Prentice and his wife Alta Rockefeller Prentice, a daughter of John D. Rockefeller. The couple had established the farm in the 1910s with the express intention to work toward the improvement of agriculture, especially livestock. Goodale’s experimentation at Mount Hope was based on the assumption that the “service that genetics may render to agriculture through improvement in the value of farm animals as a source of income to the farmer is of real importance.” Mount Hope soon became an extensive enterprise primarily known for its “investigation into the laws of inheritance among mice as well as its work with dairy cattle and poultry.” In the farm’s Mouse House, Goodale studied the extent of change accomplished by selection. He used the insights gained from these experiments to help accomplish the farm’s main objective, namely the development of a strictly dairy breed of cattle, i.e., a breed that could pay its way by sales of dairy products alone.

Goodale played a central role in the development of what became known as index breeding. In order to improve the cattle, Mount Hope taught breeders that they should not rely on old standards and pedigree but instead needed to use the progeny test to determine which cattle produced the best offspring. The farm was using the progeny test for the breeding not just of its cattle but also its poultry. It had resulted in a steady increase in the number of eggs produced by the hens. In 1927 Goodale published an article in the American Naturalist in which he announced an index to assist farmers in discovering the productive qualities transmitted by any given dairy bull. The notion of the progeny test undermined the prestige of the “purebred” idea and, not surprisingly, initially met with significant opposition. Goodale’s notion of index breeding was not just new, it also challenged the principles on which significant monetary investments had been made. The new doctrine thus threatened the interests of breeders, auctioneers, breed associations, and others whose welfare depended in large part in the old standards of type and pedigree. In any case, Mount Hope attracted significant attention for its revolutionary idea of index breeding. As the Guernsey Weekly Press acknowledged in 1935, “Mount Hope has become a world-famous center for scientific cattle.”

Partly as a result of a massive campaign designed to educate the public about the benefits of index breeding, the idea gradually found broad popular support. (The publicity even included a feature in the July 1938 issue of Life Magazine, complete with photos of cattle, poultry and Hubert Goodale.) Representatives from as far away as Germany, Italy, Turkey and Sweden visited the farm to learn about its breeding programs. However, it was more challenging to gain the approval of agricultural colleges and government departments. To win their endorsement, Mount Hope hosted a series of regional meetings to discuss the research programs of the Department of Agriculture. Goodale participated in these meetings which ultimately worked to convince the Department of Agriculture to promote progeny-test breeding.

Goodale was a member of the American Society of Zoologists (1914), and the Poultry Science Association. He was married to Lottie Ann Merrill. The couple had two daughters.

From the guide to the Hubert Dana Goodale papers, 1901-1965, (American Philosophical Society)