HIGH-CLASS SHEEP-BREEDING. 79 



tially artificial, and the infinite variety of type in animals 

 is due to the special application or accidental concurrence 

 of conditions favourable to this production. Once a 

 type, quality, or habit, is established or ' fixed ' in any 

 animal, it becomes hereditary so long as the progeny of 

 such animal continues to exist under the same conditions 

 as those under which it was created ; but, if subjected 

 accidentally or systematically to different treatment, and 

 different influences, such type, quality, or habit, will ne- 

 cessarily become modified for better or worse ; and there 

 is, unquestionably, an art in adapting treatment to the 

 surrounding natural conditions of soil, climate, &c. so 

 as to produce advantageous modifications in the direction 

 most congenial to those conditions. The perfections or 

 good qualities attained by individuals, or nations, in breed- 

 ing sheep, under the law of hereditary transmission, are 

 available to others for pushing still further the course of 

 refining and adaptation of breeds. 



To avoid a toilsome course, chequered by many failures, 

 in the work of improving and perfecting our sheep, the 

 ' high-caste ' breeder should have at least a fair knowledge 

 of scientific principles, and the various ' cosmic ' influences 

 regulating and affecting the development of animals, their 

 nutrition, and well-being. I will endeavour to condense 

 a few of these principles, and give them a practical appli- 

 cation. I need hardly apologise for here referring to 

 ' primary natural laws,' with a view to trace their connec- 

 tion with the matter in hand. 



In the whole universe no atom is lost. Force is ever 

 existing always equal but ever changing, and passing 

 from one form to another. All things are mutually de- 

 pendent. Decay is the end of production production 

 the result of decay life of death and death of life. 

 All life is the result of certain combinations and influences; 

 and all growing and living forms are composed of the same 



