354 PRINCIPLES OF STOCK-BREEDING. 



representing the different breeds ; bat the points upon 

 which an opinion is formed will necessarily have a 

 different value in each breed, from the difference in 

 the qualities that constitute perfection. 



In animals intended for the butcher, the most 

 satisfactory test of merit can only be applied when 

 they reach their destination on the Mock, where the 

 relative development of the most valuable parts can 

 be readily demonstrated. 



This test, from its very nature, cannot, however, 

 be applied in those cases in which a reliable method 

 of estimating real values is most needed as in deter- 

 mining the relative merits of breeding-stock, or the 

 feeding qualities of animals that are to be fattened. 



As a practical test of the true value cannot, in 

 many instances, be applied to the living animal as 

 in determining the greatest proportion of choice parts 

 in animals intended for the butcher the prospective 

 value of young animals for the dairy or for work or 

 the ability of animals in the lean condition to fatten 

 rapidly when well fed we must resort to the ancestral 

 history for a knowledge of inherited tendencies, and 

 to the details of external conformation for an index 

 of all other particulars. 



To become an expert in judging animals with 

 reference to their value on the whole, for a particular 

 purpose, requires extended opportunities for observa- 

 tion under a variety of conditions a careful study of 

 their form when alive, in connection with their ap- 

 pearance on the butcher's block, where the leading 

 object is meat, and for other purposes, the relations of 

 their form to the activity of the functions concerned 





