THE HORSE BREEDING. 591 



be able to adapt them to rear young, which shall answer his 

 preconceived wants. He must know that, all other things being 

 equal, both parents equally exert the same amount of influence 

 on their progeny. This presupposes the equal health, vigor, and 

 stamina of both parents. Both should therefore be as pure- 

 blooded and perfect as possible. 



"Because it has been recommended that the male animal 

 should be most highly bred, some have attributed to him the 

 greater potential share in the procreation. This is only true 

 because he is the parent of many annually, while the female is 

 the parent of one, or of only a few during the same time. 



"Though food, climate, soil, altitude, exposure, shelter, care, 

 kindness, and other operating circumstances may all produce 

 great changes, yet, all operating at the same time, and for a long 

 time, on the animal and its progeny can not change the species. 

 By selection, we, in time, breed small-boned into large-boned 

 ones, long-legged ones into short-legged ones; we can breed 

 horned into hornless, and light-bodied one into heavy-bodied 

 animals. In a word, by selection, the breeder can make the black 

 white, the white black, the fruitful barren, the deformed straight, 

 the perfect imperfect, the imperfect perfect; he can breed to a 

 feather ; he can produce a tendency to meat, to milk, to butter, to 

 cheese, to capacity for labor, for speed, for endurance, or to serve 

 almost any reasonable desire, demand, or fancy. By breeding from 

 carefully selected parents, the breeder can rapidly increase his 

 flocks and herds, by choosing those of great fecundity from which 

 to breed ewes from families that yean twins, cows that uniformly 

 breed, sows that farrow large numbers of pigs and it is just as 

 essential that the males, also, should be selected from like pro- 

 lific families and dams." 



The terms "natural selection," "the struggle for existence," 

 and the "survival of the fittest," have been freely used by 

 Darwin and others to convey the idea of nature and her methods 

 to perpetuate her creatures. The wise breeder takes advantage 

 of nature and methods to perpetuate the excellences which his 

 acumen and judgment in the selection have secured for the art 

 of breeding. There are many things to be constantly borne in 



