Chap. XXI. SELECTION. 229 



But seeing the great improvement within recent times in our 

 cattle and sheep, and especially in our pigs; seeing the 

 wonderful increase in weight in our poultry of all kinds 

 during the last few years; he would be a bold man who 

 would assert that perfection has been reached. It has often 

 been said that Eclipse never was, and never will be, beaten in 

 speed by any other horse; but on making inquiries I find 

 that the best judges believe that our present race-horses are 

 fleeter. ^^ The attempt to raise a new variety of wheat more 

 productive than the many old kinds, might have been thought 

 until lately quite hopeless; but this has been effected by 

 Major Hallett, by careful selection. With respect to almost 

 all our animals and plants, those who are best qualified to 

 judge do not believe that the extreme point of perfection has 

 yet been reached even in the characters which have already 

 been carried to a high standard. For instance, the short- 

 faced tumbler-pigeon has been greatly modified ; nevertheless, 

 according to Mr. Eaton, ^^ " the field is still as open for fresh 

 competitors as it was one hundred years ago." Over and 

 over again it has been said that perfection had been attained 

 with our flowers, but a higher standard has soon been reached. 

 Hardly any fruit has been more improved than the straw- 

 berry, yet a great authority remarks,^^ " it must not be 

 concealed that we are far from the extreme limits at which 

 we may arrive." 



Ko doubt there is a limit beyond which the organisation 

 cannot be modified compatibly with health or life. The 

 extreme degree of fleetness, for instance, of which a terrestrial 

 animal is capable, may have been acquired by our present 

 race-horses ; but as Mr. Wallace has well remarked, ^^ the 

 question that interests us, " is not whether indefinite and un- 

 " limited change in any or all directions is possible, but 

 " whether such difierences as do occur in nature could have 

 " been produced by the accumulation of varieties by selection." 

 And in the case of our domestic productions, there can be no 



^^ See also Stonehenge, 'British Chron.,' 1858. p. 173. 



Rural Sports/ edition of 1871, p. 384. "* 'Contributions to the Theory of 



** 'A Treatise on the Almond Natural Selection,' 2nd edit., 1871, 



Tumbler,* p. i. p. 292. 



*' M. J. de Jonghe, in *Gard. 



32 



