CHAPTER II. 

 HEREDITY AS A FORCE. 



Heredity is the biological force which tends 

 to enable parents to transmit their physical and 

 psychological characteristics to their offspring. 

 In improved domestic animals this force has 

 little strength of itself. As a factor in success- 

 ful breeding it is not so powerful as environ- 

 ment. Unless this force is properly directed 

 and suitably environed its effects in improve- 

 ment are negligible. The natural tendency of 

 all improved live stock left to itself is toward 

 degeneration, not improvement. Hence in con- 

 sidering the amelioration of animals we must 

 pay due heed to the breeder's personal equation. 

 One man succeeds and another fails, both using 

 the same foundation stock. A very complex 

 problem is faced by the breeder. There are no 

 hard and fast rules by which success may be at- 

 tained. Natural opposition, always trending 

 downward, must be overcome. Superior indi- 

 viduality and good pedigree are necessary to 

 the production of high-class animals, but they 

 are of comparatively small value unless they 

 are surrounded by proper conditions and the 

 forces of heredity are directed aright. The 

 longer I live and the more I see of men and 



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