BREED FROM THE BEST. 189 



sometimes inclining to the side of one parent, and sometimes 

 to the other, according to the respective power of trans- 

 mission which has been spoken of. 



If this power Largely preponderates in one parent, owing to 

 the length of time in which it has been carefully bred, or the 

 number of generations through which it has become fixed and 

 intensified, while it has been broken and weakened in the 

 other by cross or promiscuous breeding, the character of the 

 offspring will be governed almost exclusively by the parent 

 that has the stronger blood ; while the other will have but 

 slight influence over the qualities of the offspring. But if 

 there is a more even adjustment of this power of transmission 

 on the part of the parents, — that is, if they are nearly or quite 

 equally well bred, — the dam will succeed in imparting some 

 peculiarities, and the sire will communicate others. The dam 

 may impart the general form of the body, for instance, but 

 be unable to control or overcome the stronger power of the 

 sire over certain points of the body. The dam, for example, 

 might have slightly deficient hind-quarters, and the sire a 

 strong tendency to impart a good hind-quarter ; and in this 

 respect she would be compelled to yield to the superior 

 strength of influence. In those points of character or fea- 

 tures where they correspond, or were similar, both being 

 good or both being bad, the result would be to increase and 

 intensify such points, and to reproduce them in a still stronger 

 form. In some particulars the influence of the male will 

 predominate ; in others, that of the dam. So you see the 

 hereditary qualities of long and carefully bred stock will 

 represent the maximum of good qualities and the minimum 

 of undesirable ones. 



If I have succeeded in making myself understood, you 

 have already a few of the most important general principles 

 from which the judgment of each breeder will enable him to 

 deduce many details to be applied in practice ; and the first and 

 most obvious is to breed only from the best, — not merely 

 the best looking, the animal that strikes and fills the eye the 

 most completely, but from the one that has the hereditary 

 power, the capacity to transmit his good qualities in the 

 highest degree to his offspring ; and the strongest evidence of 

 this power will be the length and perfection of his pedigree, 

 showing the qualities of his ancestors for some generations 



