



PKEFACE. 



IT is somewliat remarkable, in this book-making 

 age, that there is no systematic work accessible to the 

 student in which the known facts and principles of 

 the art of improving and breeding domestic animals 

 are presented, in convenient form, for study and ref- 

 erence, notwithstanding the importance of live-stock 

 to the farmer, and the wonderful progress that has 

 been made in its improvement since the time of Bake- 

 well. 



The present attempt to supply this want has been 

 made in response to the repeated solicitations of per- 

 sons interested in stock-breeding, who have attended 

 my lectures on this subject, in various places, for sev- 

 eral years past. 



In a popular exposition of the principles of an art 

 that is almost exclusively based upon the experience 

 of practical men there is little opportunity for origi- 

 nality, aside from the classification and arrangement 

 of facts, and the inferences, in some instances, that 



