SELECTION. 391 



The diminution of hardiness that results from the 

 development of the best feeding quality must not be 

 allowed to proceed so far as to become a predisposing 

 cause of disease. 



Any inherited predisposition to disease must in like 

 manner be carefully avoided, and the best sanitary con- 

 ditions should prevail in the system of management. 



The milking qualities of the meat-producing 

 breeds have been too generally neglected, and many 

 breeders have been led to believe that the tendency to 

 lay on fat is directly antagonistic to the secretion of 

 milk; and that there is an incompatibility in the 

 active exercise of these two functions. This extreme 

 view of tlie relations of the two functions is based 

 upon certain well-ascertained facts, that do not, how- 

 ever, represent the whole truth. 



If the attention of the breeder is directed exclu- 

 sively to the development of either of these functions, 

 the effect will be to diminish the activity of the other ; 

 and it is also well known that the peculiarities of 

 form that indicate the best feeding quality are not the 

 same as those obtained when the production of milk 

 is the leading or sole object, the natural correlations 

 of form and function in the two cases being quite 

 different. 



These facts do not, however, warrant the assump- 

 tion that the two qualities, in a high degree of excel- 

 lence, cannot be combined in the same animal. The 

 possibility of such a combination of characters has 

 been abundantly demonstrated by experience. Quite 

 a number of animals, representing several different 

 breeds and their grades, have come under my observa- 



