106 Statk Boakd of Agricucturk, &c. 



The lUHi-giu for the improveiueut of the domestic animals 

 ill the State is very wide. If all tlie animals that never 

 sliould liave been born, and that do not pay any profit, 

 should be sacrificed on the altar of im])rovenient, the 

 slaughter of the innocents would he friiilitfnl. Not a few 

 of the farmers would see the cows they ha\'e In-ago^ed over 

 walk up tind lay their submissive necks under the wheels of 

 this Jui-'o-ernaut. 



The first step for the farmer to take, or, rather, the pre- 

 liminary to any step, in breeding farm stock, is to fix and 

 determine upon a well considered ideal as \\ hat he wishes 

 to produce ; a standard that shall not l»e often nor lightly 

 changed. Having formed in his mind tlie image of pei'fec- 

 tion to which he desires to attain, there are certain well 

 establislied principles whicli he must o])sei've. Principal 

 among these is the law of similarity, that tlie cpialities of 

 the parents are transmitted to the children. This is a great 

 and wonderful law, and he who perfectly understands it 

 and is master of the power to apply it in practice can mould 

 them at Avill. The size, form, color, temperament and 

 other chai-acteristics of animals, are at his control, and can 

 be gradually changed and modified in a most surprising 

 manner. It is a peculiarity of this law that the qualities of 

 remote ancestors nuiy lie dormant in the inmiediate parent, 

 and yet be transmitted to the offspring in all their force and 

 a,ctivity. It is tlie non-observance of this principle which 

 occasions so frequent disappointment in stock breeding, and 

 especially in breeding farm stock. The farniei' loses sight 

 of the fact that tlie character of the calf mav be controlled 



