358 PRINCIPLES OF STOCK-BREEDING. 



1. A sound constitution is of course desirable in 

 all animals, but it is indispensable in the feeding ani- 

 mal whose powers of nutrition are taxed to the fullest 

 extent in the rapid conversion of the food that is re- 

 quired in successful feeding. 



2. Good feeding quality, or the ability to fatten 

 rapidly at an early age and return the largest profit 

 for food consumed. 



3. The flesh should be of good quality, and the 

 carcass should furnish the largest possible proportion 

 of choice parts, with a corresponding diminution of 

 the parts of little or no value. 



The general proportions of the animal which first 

 naturally attract attention will frequently furnish in- 

 dications of its leading characteristics, without an 

 examination of the details of its conformation. 



Many of the best authorities on external form 

 agree in the statement that the body of an animal 

 intended for the butcher should be somewhat rectan- 

 gular in outline, giving the form of a parallelogram 

 when viewed from the side, and of a square when 

 viewed from before or behind ; l but, in approximating 

 to these mathematical figures in outline, it should be 

 remembered that the angular parts of the body must 

 be rounded and smoothly blended with the general 

 surface, without any bony prominences or coarseness 

 to detract from the general expression of compactness, 

 substance, and symmetry, that marks the perfection of 

 useful beauty. 



1 Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, vol. v., p. 162, vol. vi., p. 267 ; 

 Johnson's " Farmer's Encyclopaedia," p. 299 ; Farmer's Magazine, vol. 

 xxxix., p. 480, vol. ii., p. 97. 



