oS AGRICULTURE. 



mental, viz.: Jirsi, the law that "like begets like"; sec- 

 one/, the law or principle of variation; and third, the law 

 or principle known as atavism. Since these laws or prin- 

 ciples appear to us to lack uniformity and regularity of 

 action, the art of breeding is in consequence much more 

 complicated and uncertain than it would otherwise be. 

 This want of uniformity and of regularity of action, how- 

 ever, is apparent rather than real. But so long as we are 

 ignorant of the cause or causes of these apparent irregu- 

 larities in transmission, we are unable to prevent them. 

 And yet there is so much of uniformity in the action of 

 these laws that the intelligent breeder cannot be said to 

 play at a game of chance. If well posted in the art, his 

 efforts will in the main be entirely successful. 



The law that " //Z'^ begets like'' implies that the char- 

 acteristics of the parents will appear in their offspring. 

 This law would seem to pervade all animated nature ; 

 generally speaking it is uniform in its action, but there 

 are some exceptions. Were it not so, examples to illus- 

 trate such a law of heredity and proofs to support it would 

 not have been needed. That the existence of this law was 

 recognized, and that many of its principles were well un- 

 derstood from an early period, finds ample illustration in 

 the breeding operations conducted by the patriarch Jacob, 

 in the monstrous forms that were bred for the amusement 

 of the Romans when the decline of the empire was pend- 

 ing, and in the care with which the Arabs kept their pedi- 

 grees from a remote antiquity. 



So uniform is this principle of heredity in its action that 

 it may be designated the compass which guides the breeder 

 into the harbor of success. But before he can anchor there 

 he must give attention to certain principles, a close adher- 

 ence to which is absolutely essential to higher attainment 

 in results. He must, for instance, breed to a standard of 

 excellence; he must set a proper value on improved blood; 

 and he must understand the art of selection and the princi- 

 ples of good management generally. Without a standard 

 of excellence in his mind, that is, without an ideal type, 

 the breeder does not himself know what he is seeking. 



