424 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



the likeness of -figure, or the habit of growth, but extends to all the characteristic points of 

 the parent animal. All the peculiarities of the system, physical and constitutional, are very 

 largely within our control; and the character which results will be governed by the tendencies 

 of the parents we select to breed from, and will depend on the adjustment of the balance of 

 qualities, sometimes inclining to the side of one parent, and sometimes to the other, 

 according to the respective power of transmission which has been spoken of. 



If this power largely preponderates in one parent, owing to the length of time in which 

 it has been carefully bred, or the number of generations through which it has become fixed 

 and intensified, while it has been broken and weakened in the other by cross or promiscuous 

 breeding, the character of the offspring will be governed almost exclusively by the parent 

 that has the stronger blood ; while the other will have but slight influence over the qualities 

 of the offspring. But if there is a more even adjustment of this power of transmission on 

 the part of the parents, that is, if they are nearly or quite equally well bred, the dam will 

 succeed in imparting some peculiarities, and the sire will communicate others. The dam may 

 impart the general form of the body, for instance, but be unable to control or overcome the 

 stronger power of the sire over certain points of the body. The dam, for example, might have 

 slightly deficient hind -quarters, and the sire a strong tendency to impart a good hind-quarter; 

 and in this respect she would be compelled to yield to the superior strength of influence. In 

 those points of character or features where they correspond, or were similar, both being good 

 or both being bad, the result would be to increase and intensify such points, and to 

 reproduce them in a still stronger form. In some particulars the influence of the male will 

 predominate; in others, that of the dam. 



So it will be seen that the hereditary qualities of long and carefully bred stock will represent 

 the maximum of good qualities and the minimum of undesirable ones. 



&quot;We have seen that the choice of the male to breed from is of special importance, because 

 of the great extent of his influence; that is, the very large number of his offspring in pro 

 portion to that of the female among our domestic animals. But it is well established now 

 that the influence of the male imparts vigor of body and general conformation of the system 

 especially of the forward parts, and that he transmits to his progeny the qualities of the 

 mother by which he was born. A well-bred bull dropped by a first-class dairy cow will pro 

 duce a calf that will make, if a heifer, another good dairy cow. He will transmit to his 

 daughter the qualities of his mother, if he have well fixed in his constitution the hereditary 

 power to which reference has been made. In breeding dairy stock, therefore, it is of the 

 utmost importance to study and know the quality of the stock from which the male has 

 descended. 



Prepotency of Transmission. Whenever the offspring strongly resemble one of 

 the parents, instead of being intermediate between them, such a progenitor is said to be pre 

 potent in transmitting its likeness. The famous bull Favorite, so frequently referred to in 

 Shorthorn pedigrees, was remarkably prepotent in transmitting his characteristics to the 

 Shorthorn race. The noted horse, Justin Morgan, whose influence to this day is so 

 strongly impressed upon the horses in some parts of New England, possessed this prepotent 

 power in a remarkable degree; also Messenger, Rysdyk s Hambletonian and other well-known 

 progenitors that might be mentioned. Breeders of horses cannot fail to have observed that 

 some mares will transmit their characteristics with almost absolute certainty, while others of 

 equally pure blood will produce invariably colts bearing the character of the sire. 



It is stated by Godine that a ram of a goat-like breed from the Cape of Good Hope pro 

 duced offspring that could be scarcely distinguished from himself when crossed with ewes of 

 twelve other breeds, which showed that this animal possessed the prepotent force in a remark 

 able degree. 



Mr. Brent, an English author, gives an instance of remarkable weakness in transmission 



