186 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, 



ceived as a gift. The same thing has been observed, though 

 it may be less apparent, in our dairy stock. Some animals, 

 by their abundant yield, or by the quality of their product, 

 pay richly for all the food they consume ; while other animals 

 fall far below this point, and entail a constant loss or expense 

 upon the owner. 



Now, wo want to search out the rules which govern the 

 results we seek to obtain, and to study the system to be pur- 

 sued in putting them in practice ; and it may serve to en- 

 courage us, to know that certain results seem uniformly to 

 follow die same fixed laws in the breeding of all varieties 

 of farii stock, as cattle, sheep, swine, &c. 



You have heard of the old and well-recognized maxim 

 that " like produces like ; " but this rule, as all others, is 

 liable to be misapplied, and the error will appear in the form 

 of contradictory results in practice. If an animal is capable of 

 transmitting any characteristic to its young, it must, of 

 course, possess that characteristic itself, although now and 

 then qualities may predominate in the offspring which were 

 almost or quite latent, or hidden, in- the parent. Now, if 

 any characteristic quality becomes hereditary in an animal, 

 it must correspond with a similar quality inherent in the 

 parent from which it descended. But if we breed from a 

 female of certain qualities by a male of an opposite character, 

 so far as these peculiar qualities are concerned, we cannot 

 expect to perpetuate in the offspring both characteristics. 

 We should obtain a result which might appear to contradict 

 the maxim that " like produces like." And here we come at 

 once upon one of the leading principles in the breeding of 

 all stock, — that though " like produces like," and can pro- 

 duce nothing else, when the two parents possess opposing or 

 unlike qualities, the one which possesses the strongest heredi- 

 tary qualities, or the strongest power of transmitting his 

 qualities, will gain a preponderating influence over the 

 offspring. 



Take, for instance, a cow with some special peculiarity of 

 form, and put her to a bull having points of form quite 

 opposite in this respect, and the calf will take the character, 

 so far as this peculiarity of form is concerned, of the parent 

 which possessed the greatest hereditar}^ power, or the greatest 

 purity and unity of influence, — what we may call fixity of 



