SELECTION AND ITS IMPORTANCE 235 



families notable for milk or butter-fat records. Suppose a 

 man desires to purchase a bull. Would it not be a fine invest- 

 ment to secure one from ancestry that would result in a herd 

 of cows that would yield 400 pounds of butter-fat, each, per 

 year, as compared with a sire producing cows giving only 200 

 pounds of butter-fat? Think of the difference in the final 

 gain to the man and to the breed ! One thing should be kept 

 in mind in the effort to secure and hold desirable qualities, 

 and that is not to breed with a narrow, one-sided policy, 

 remembering that the greatest general perfection of form 

 and function should always be the final object of the breeder. 

 Selection and environment have much in common. By 

 environment is meant the conditions of climate, soil, shelter, 

 etc. In very recent years the word "genetics" has come 

 into use, and will no doubt become more common in the 

 future. It refers to breeding scientifically, depending upon 

 hereditary transmission, without regard to environment. 

 When starting in the business of breeding, it is very generally 

 considered important that animals be selected that are suited 

 to the special conditions under which they must live. While 

 it is true that domestic animals are adaptable, the different 

 breeds are not equally so. Some, as for example, the Short- 

 horn, seem to thrive under a wide range of conditions. Others 

 are much less suited to change. Large, heavy animals are 

 better adapted to the lower lying lands and richer pastures; 

 while the lighter, smaller type thrives in the hill country, 

 where herbage is not so abundant. There are cases where 

 men have persistently held to a breed under adverse condi- 

 tions, and have selected until an adjustment was reached 

 between the animal and the climate and the breeder. Brown 

 states that one of the greatest triumphs achieved by the hus- 

 bandman, with the aid of selection, has been in stocking the 

 "great thirst land of central Australia " with Merino sheep. 



