374 PRINCIPLES OF STOCK-BREEDING. 



upper line of the neck should be well up to the line 

 of the chine and loin, as a drooping neck is an indica- 

 tion of poor feeding quality. 1 



"When the shoulders are too upright, there is often 

 a deficiency in the crops, and the shoulder-points are 

 liable to be prominent. If the shoulders are oblique 

 and broad at the top, they blend easily with the chine 

 and crops ; and, when thickly covered with flesh 

 throughout their entire surface, the points being ob- 

 scured by the development of cellular tissue at the 

 base of the neck, the fore-quarter will furnish a good 

 proportion of valuable meat. It has been observed 

 that, if the shoulders are extremely oblique and nar- 

 row at the top, the upper part of the blade-bone is 

 not likely to be well covered with flesh. 3 



The chest contains the lungs, the heart, and the 

 larger blood-vessels, all of which have an important 

 function to perform in the process of nutrition. 



The constitutional vigor, health, and feeding qual- 

 ity of animals, will therefore depend upon the full de- 

 velopment of these organs, and a capacious chest that 

 will permit a free and vigorous performance of their 

 functions. 



It is well known to breeders that animals with a 

 small chest do not fatten readily, 8 and they are remark- 



1 Youatt on "Sheep," p. 418; Farmer's Magazine, vol. xi., p. 98, 

 vol. xl., p. 232 ; Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, vol. xvi., p. 

 36, vol. vii., p. 208. 



2 Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, vol. vii., p. 208 ; Far- 

 mer's Magazine, vol. xxxvii., p. 319; Welles's "Guide to Form in 

 Cattle." 



3 Sir John Sebright's "Art of Improving Breeds," p. 22. W. F. 

 Karkeek, V. S., has assumed, on theoretical grounds, that a capacious 



