Ll\ KS'lOCK lA KM I.N (I • 40 



the decision should be made in view of all the facts and conditions, and 

 the materials should be judiciously chosen, but once the plan is deciderl 

 Jipon it should bo carried out as faithfully as the builder follows the plans 

 of the architect, rememberins that he cannot build a cathedral by recon- 

 structing a factory. 



"Withal he must be instant in using the possible single opportunity of 

 a lifetime. Great chances in breeding do not offer themselves daily, and 

 when the breeder finds himself with promising and effective material on 

 hand he needs must be quick to use it to the best advantage before it is 

 gone forever. Few stockmen realize how rapidly the herd will change its 

 entire personnel, and many a man has failed because his herd was gone 

 before he saw his opportunity. It is not that breeding results can be 

 short-circuited, but it is that often plans need to be reconstructed in 

 order to secure the desired end by altered methods, for it is the end and 

 not the method that counts for success, 



"Courage is one quality that must go into the compound of this man 

 who is to be a constructive breeder, for it is only a question of time, if 

 he is really doing things, when he will be brought face to face with the 

 alternative of inbreeding or of abandoning his line of effort. So true is 

 this that no man should begin a course of constructive breeding unless 

 he has the courage to 'go the limit' when this time comes. Beating about 

 the bush at a juncture of this kind, while animals are growing older 

 day by day, is like holding a conference on ways and means when the 

 house is afire. The conference should have been held before and plans 

 made in advance. The issue of inbreeding, like a fire hazard, is always 

 to be counted upon. It may not come but it cannot be left out of the 

 reckoning. 



"After all these artistic and perhaps in the minds of many fanciful 

 quahties, it seems prosaic to mention that this breeder must have sound 

 economic sense and know when and how to thin down numbers, par- 

 ticularly if a period of depression overtake him in the midst of things. 

 Many a herd has been undermined and many a breeder ruined by mere 

 numbers which he allowed to accumulate only because he did not have 

 the economic judgment to realize that in dull times herds may eat their 

 heads off and all to no purpose. How to preserve the nucleus of the herd 

 under the most trying conditions is an economic problem that is always 

 in prospect just ahead, and one which the breeder should be ready to 

 meet at all times. 



"Judgment he must have to select from all that is available the 

 comparatively small amount with which he is to do his work. This 

 judgment he must use when tempted to waver from his ideal in response 

 to the demaiyls of fashion and the lure of temporary gain. He must 

 rely upon it too in checking his own impulses and in refining or altering 

 his ideals in accordance ^^'ith changing conditions or available material. 

 He is not to confuse stubbornness with conservatism, nor an inconstant 

 mind with a progressive spirit. This judgment he will invoke from time 

 to time in measuring his own ideals against the ideals of others, lest he 

 labor in vain in perfecting a thing that the world no longer needs or will 



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