74 VERMONT AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



SOME PRINCIPLES THAT UNDERLIE THE IMPROVE- 

 MENT OF LIVE STOCK. 



By Charles William Burkett, Professor of Agriculture, New 

 Hampshire College of Agriculture, at Westminster, 



January 16. 



We are all impressed with heredity, or that " like pro- 

 duces like," in the breeding of live stock. There is many an 

 experienced farmer and breeder who has seen well groomed, 

 symmetrical and fine bred animals, and who have concluded 

 to take up the art, expecting to experience the same success. 

 But nine out of ten are disappointed. The barns do not fill 

 up with the kind of animals they anticipated, for after a cou- 

 ple of generations the offspring are much different and infe- 

 rior to the original stock. 



The question arises, " Why is this ? " There are several 

 reasons ; first, because all animals, as well as their fine quali- 

 ties and uniformity, have not the ability of adapting them- 

 selves to new conditions. Every breed and every individual is 

 influenced by the changed conditions of climate, food and 

 habit. For instance, the diminutive pony and the ponderous 

 draft horse have come from the same ancestor. One was 

 transported to the barren, bleak and stormy islands border- 

 ing on Scotland, and the Shetland pony resulted. The other 

 went down in central Europe, where there was a warm cli- 

 mate and plenty of rich and nutritious food, and the large 

 draft horse results. Climatic influences are always at work, 

 but when domestication sets in their influence is partly coun- 

 teracted by man. Where man works in unison with nature 

 any transformation is accelerated ; acting in opposition he 

 counteracts it. 



At this point another influence begins. I refer to the law 

 or principle of variation. This simply means the deviation 

 from the established type. It is some new character about an 

 offspring that is not seen in the parental stock. It may be 

 something that should be developed into a strong, valuable 

 character, or it may be just the reverse. Judicious breeding 

 means the notice of a new character and its intensification if 

 something for good, or its elimination if something ill. We 

 are taught today that we should breed from pure bred ani- 

 mals, and many of us are doing so, yet some of our pure- 

 breeds are inferior to grades. That is due to the fact that 



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the breeder has not been observing this character of variation 



6 



It is natural for animals to deteriorate, and if man does not 



