192 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



rentage. After his divorce, the king married Anne Boleyn, 

 and the fruit of that union was Queen Elizabeth, who exhibited 

 the characters of both parents — the strong father, the weak 

 mother. She was, in some points, one of the strongest per- 

 sons that ever sat upon a throne ; there came out, whenever 

 occasion required it, the great character of the father, and she 

 was equal to every emergency. But until that emergency 

 arose, she had the weakness of her mother, and allowed her- 

 self to be toadied and flattered, and showed herself, what she 

 really was in those moments, a weak woman. So you may 

 take any of the reigning families of Europe, and you will see 

 among them all the peculiarities of their ancestors, so marked 

 that they could not fail to be distinguished by anybody who 

 investigated the subject. 



Now, we cannot ignore these same laws in relation to our 

 stock. We cannot say that the best pure-blood bull does 

 not perpetuate in his descendants his characteristics, either for 

 good or evil. It is impossible for an animal that has not good 

 qualities to give to its descendants characteristics which it has 

 not. Therefore, as Mr. Flint has shown us, it is important that 

 we should have, in a bull particularly, strongly-marked char- 

 acteristics, because he gives to his progeny, through successive 

 generations, his character, while the female only gives it to her 

 immediate descendants. But I think Mr. Flint will agree with 

 me, and all breeders, that it is better to have the very best 

 cow you can get, and the best bull to match the cow, if you 

 want the best stock. The only way, therefore, to bring up our 

 stock, is as the best farmers are bringing them up. If we do 

 not have thoroughbred stock on both sides, as is not necessary 

 in the ordinary business of a farmer, we must make a selection 

 of our best cows, and put them to the best thoroughbred bull 

 we can find, and follow that up with the progeny. It is not 

 a certain thing, because you have a first-rate cow, apparently, 

 and a thoroughbred bull, that you will get a first-rate calf, 

 because there are so many chances that a bad trait or a chance 

 peculiarity will come out in the progeny, just as some pecu- 

 liarity will appear in the children of a family for three or four 

 generations. But if you continue this system, getting rid of 

 your bad animals, if you have them, and taking the best to 



