SECRETARY'S REPORT. 63 



five times his price is asked. Perhaps he served forty cows last 

 year and brought his owner as many quarters, while the other only 

 served five and brought an income of but five dollars. The ques- 

 tion arises, which is the better bargain ? After pondering the 

 matter, one buys the low-priced and the other the high-priced one, 

 both being well satisfied in their own minds. 



What did results show ? The low-priced one served that season 

 perhaps a hundred cows ; more than ought to have done so, came 

 a second time ; — having been overtasked as a 3-earling, he lacked 

 somewhat of vigor. The calves came of all sorts, some good, some 

 poor, a few like the sire, more like the dams — all mongrels and 

 showing mongrel origin more than he did. There seemed in many 

 of them a tendency to combine the defects of the grades from which 

 he sprung rather than their good points. In some, the quietness 

 of the Short-horn degenerated into stupidity, and in others the 

 activity of the Devon into nervous viciousness. Take them to- 

 gether they perhaps paid for rearing, or nearly so. After using 

 him another year, he was killed, having been used long enough. 



The other, we will say, served that same season a reasonable 

 number, perhaps four to six in a week, or one every day, not more. 

 Few came a second time and those for no fault of his. The calves 

 bear a striking resemblance to the sire. Some from the better 

 cows look even better in some points, than himself and few much 

 worse. There is a remarkable uniformity among them ; as they 

 grow up they thrive better than those by the low priced one. 

 They prove better adapted to the use intended. On the whole 

 they are quite satisfactory and each pays annually in their growth, 

 labor or milk a profit over the cost of food and attendance of five 

 or ten dollars or more. If worked enough to furnish the exercise 

 needful to insure vigorous health, he may be as serviceable and as 

 manageable at eight or ten years old, as at two ; meantime he has 

 got, perhaps, five hundred calves, which in due time become worth 

 ten or twenty dollars each more than those from the other. Which 

 now seems the wiser purchase ? Was the higher estimate placed 

 on the well bred animal based upon fancy or upon intrinsic value ? 



It is from a conviction of the necessity of generally giving in- 

 creased attention to selection in the breeding of domestic animals 

 in order to render our system of agriculture more profitable, and 

 with the hope of contributing somewhat to this end that I attempt 

 iu the following remarks to set forth as well as my resources will 

 permit, some of the physiological principles involved in the breed- 



