Bkekdixg Farm Stock. 107 



by some (loruiaiit (quality of the parent, that it may " trace 

 back," as it is termed, to a remote ancestor ; and lie is sm- 

 prised and disappointed, after years of feeding and care, to 

 find that the heifer, which he expected wonld make, like 

 its dam, a vtdnable dairy cow, proves to be <jnly ordinary or 

 inferior. The freqnency of this and siinihir nnfortimate 

 resnlts are the natural and inevitable consequences of wluit may 

 be termed our homogeneous system of l)reeding, if the word 

 system may be applied to anything having so little order. 

 There are such variation and antagonism in the qualities of 

 the numerous animals whose blood unites in the veins of the 

 calf Ave raise, that it is impossible to predict, with any cer- 

 tainty, what qualities will l^e transmitted to it. 



It is another peculiarity of this hiw, equally important, 

 that eacJi reproduction of any quality, by proper selection, 

 intensities the reproductive power as regards that quality, 

 and makes its reappearance more and more certain in each 

 generation. It is as if a great ball is set rolling down an 

 incline just sufficient to give it motion. At first its move- 

 ment is such that every inequality of the ground turns it 

 from its course. As it rolls onward it gains in speed, and 

 its momentum, which increases with every revolution, sends 

 it spinning down in a line as unerring as that of yonder 

 star, which holds its way, century after century, among its 

 glittering companions, without deviation of the breadth of 

 a hair fi'om the path marked out for it by 'the Hand that 

 leads ns all. 



There is no one word which expresses the idea I wish to 

 convey so well as the word moTnentum. It is ;i pi-operty 

 or pijwer to resist and overcome opposing force. 



