190 NOTES ON FIELDS AND CATTLE. 



long years, carefully bred, regard being had to the 

 development of certain characteristic points, and the 

 breeding stock being continually reserved of such as 

 show those lines most strongly, until, as a habit 

 grows from the repetition of acts, a type is finally 

 established, a mould settles, from the continual en- 

 couragement of particular traits, all u misfits " (that 

 is, untowardly produce, such as is not wanted), being 

 got rid of at once. Thus, by minute, patient culti- 

 vation desirable points become stereotyped in time, 

 as varieties of the geranium and picotee. Then is 

 the type thorough-bred, in the first intention of the 

 word ; and it is by way of rarest exception that a 

 misfit occurs. Then, " like produces like " with a 

 high degree of certainty. That such is the case is a 

 matter of every-day observation, and is but, after all, 

 the fair reward of intelligent industry. In this sense, 

 too, Sir J. Sebright, as quoted by Yarrell, seems to 

 have used the word. This, however, is the great 

 reason why no half-bred or mongrel should be used 

 as a sire. You do not know, if you breed from such, 

 what objectionable quality, or point, or feature may 

 not crop up when least looked for. The offspring of 

 elegant parents may any day throw back to the cart- 

 grandmother, in a large coarse head ; or, if the first 

 foal answers, the second may not — there is no 

 certainty or comfort about it. It is only upon trial 

 you can ascertain what strains she may embed. How 

 true in shape the Arab throws her foal ; so, too, the 

 lovely little Welsh mountain mare. I cannot con- 

 sider breeding a hard business when a person has 

 taken the trouble to study the proper points of the 



