BREEDS AND THE PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 421 



liable to variation, since the offspring in such cases has a double chance of being influenced 

 by conditions affecting the parents. &amp;gt; 



Selection. In the whole theory of generation, there is no one principle of so much 

 importance as selection, this being generally acknowledged as the chief element in successful 

 breeding. To select judiciously animals which shall be successful pro-creators of their race, 

 requires a correct judgment, nice discrimination, and a thorough knowledge of the art of 

 breeding, and what has been distinguished by Darwin as methodical selection, which always 

 implies that the breeder has before his mind a model upon which he attempts to form his 

 strain, and like the potter who moulds his clay, the sculptor who chisels from rough marble, 

 or the artist who .causes dull canvas to speak in outline and varying tints of harmonious 

 colors, the breeder must have an ideal form or model after which he is to fashion the coming- 

 animal. 



And not only must he have in mind the ideal form or model to imitate, but he must bo 

 able to decide which animals the most nearly approach this ideal, and also which are best 

 suited to be paired together in order to produce the result desired. Breeding is therefore a 

 real science in every sense of the word, and deserves to be classed among the high arts, while 

 the masters in this art, those who have been the most successful, in the past or present, are 

 men of real genius. 



Much patience, time, and labor are required in either establishing or perfecting a breed. 

 Sir John Sebright is said to have spent several days in considering the rival merits of fiv3 or 

 six birds, while founding the breed of fowls that bear his name. Hammond, the famous 

 breeder of Merinos, is reputed to have reared 300 rams of this breed, and selected from them 

 only one that he considered of desired perfection to be used in his own flock. It is said of 

 Lord Rivers, who was noted for breeding elegant greyhounds, that he drowned nine out of 

 every ten puppies among the litters of his choice kennel/ 



Chancellor Livingston bred his Merinos up from four or five-pound fleeces, to eight or 

 nine pounds. Some of our modern breeders have attained the almost incredible result of 

 producing fleeces weighing from sixteen to thirty-six pounds, the percentage of wool to live 

 weight ranging from sixteen to twenty-two per cent. And this has been done by methodical 

 selection, combined with good care and other favoring conditions. In Germany the Merino 

 sheep farmers do not even trust their own judgment in selecting animals for breeding 

 purposes, but employ what are called professional &quot; sheep classifiers &quot; for this purpose. 

 . Bakewell, who was the first true methodical breeder of which we have any definite knowledge, 

 bred almost entirely for early maturity, and fattening qualities, and we have in the improved 

 Shorthorns a breed that gives evidence of the astounding result of his efforts. 



To show what the intelligent breeder has accomplished, we ask the readers to compare 

 the illustrations in this work of the Texas and Longhorn cattle, with those of the improved 

 Shorthorns, Herefords, and other choice breeds of the present day; the Wild Boar, Old 

 English, and Old Irish hogs with the Berkshire, Poland Chinas, and other improved breeds 

 of swine, or the cuts of sheep which were bred fifty or eighty years ago with the fine 

 specimens from the flocks of Merinos, Cotswolds, Oxford Downs, etc., of our best breeders of 

 these animals. The changes wrought are indeed wonderful, and yet they have been brought 

 about mainly by careful selection. 



The purer the blood of breeding animals, the longer and more firmly fixed will be the 

 qualities and characteristics, and the more uniformly and intensely will these characteristics 

 be transmitted. For instance, the Devon cattle are uniformly red, and no other color can be 

 obtained from pure blood of this breed, because from time immemorial this color has been 

 established by hereditary transmission. If the sire and dam both have,fixed characteristics of 

 a similar type, they will transmit them to their progeny as surely as the Devon bull enstamps 

 his color on his get. &quot;Where the characteristics of the parents are of a similar type, those 



