HEREDITARY POWER IS LATENT. 113 



represented by the 60, the Vcalue of the hereditary power of 

 its mother, but by a number perhaps somewhere intermedi- 

 ate between them ; it woukl be difficult to tell exactly what. 

 I do not mean to say that there is any law which will repre- 

 sent it exactly. I merely give this as an illustration to show 

 you how gi-eatly the hereditary power is constantly reduced 

 when the parents are not alike. I say that in such a case as 

 that, you could represent the hereditary power of the oflspring 

 of such parents, not by 100 — the hereditary power of its father 

 — nor by 60 — the hereditary power of its mother — but it would 

 be a power very greatly reduced. 



Now, that fact ought to be borne in mind ; and it ought 

 also to be borne in mind that this hereditary power is strictly 

 latent and hidden in the system. Take, for instance, what is 

 called a thorough-bred animal, a bull or a ram. You put that 

 bull or ram upon a female which has been bred as I have said, 

 without any care or system, the merest haphazard, and what 

 do you get ? You get an offspring which will be almost pre- 

 cisely, to the eye, like the father. Why ? Because the hered- 

 itary power of transmission in the father was so concentrated 

 that he transmits, so far as the form is concerned, most per- 

 fectly, completely, that form to his offspring. But now you 

 must bear in mind, that although that form is so attractive to 

 the eye, although it fills the eye so well, yet the hereditary 

 power of its father is gone. Now, look at that remark, " Let 

 me see the animal, and I can tell whether I want to breed 

 from him or not." You see how fallacious it is. There is 

 nothing more fallacious than to judge merely by the eye. It 

 ought to be known how strong the power of transmitting its 

 qualities is. And that very fact which I suggested is practically 

 admitted by every farmer, in this way : after an animal, a bull 

 for instance, or a horse, gets to be six, seven or eight years 

 old, then you see what its offspring is ; you see what it gets ; 

 but by knowing positively, by knowing clearly and fully the 

 amount of hereditary power which has been accumulated in 

 the animal, we ought to be able to judge before that time ; 

 we ought to be able to judge when the animal is young. 



A few years ago I had a flock of sheep. They were not 

 natives, but graded sheep. They were evidently grade Cots- 

 wolds with a little Irish Smut, perhaps, and possibly a very 

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