CHAPTER 111. 

 DEVELOPMENT AND IMPROVEMENT OF BREEDS. 



it ANCIENT AND MODEUN BREEDING. II. CATTLE OF THE CAMPAGNAS. III. PIO 



NEERS OF IMPROVED STOCK. IV. ILLUSTRATIONS OF NOTED ENGLISH BREEDS 



V. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO FORM A BUEED. VI. HOW A BREED IS FORMED. VII. 



BREEDING FOR CERTAIN USES. VIII. VARIATION IN TYPE. IX. IN-AND-IN 



BREEDING AND BREEDING IN LINE. X. ALTERING THE CHARACTER BY CROSSING. 



XI. INFLUENCE OF SHELTER AND FEEDING. XII. HEREDITY IN CATTLE. 



Km. HEREDITARY INFLUENCE OF PARENTS. XIV. ATAVISM. XV. PECULI- 

 ARITIES OFANCESTORS PERPETUATED. XVI. HOW THE SHORT-HORNS WERE BRED 



t'P. XVII. SHORT-HORNS DURING THE LAST FIFTY YEARS. XVIII. THREE 



SHORT-HORN STRAINS. XIX. THE THREE PRINCIPAL TYPES OF CATTLE. 



Ancient and Modem Breeding. 

 It might be curious to trace the history of cattle, step by step, in their 

 mprovement from the earliest times ; but the results of such a task would 

 DC largely composed of conjecture, neither valuable as history, nor inter- 

 esting-, except to a few. The aim of this work is to be practical, and its 

 object is to give only such valuable information as will be useful or inter- 

 esting to all readers engaged in the breeding, rearing or use of live- 

 stock. 



While many aistinct breeds of cattle have been known from the begin- 

 nin"- of the historical era, it is only within the last 200 years that carefui 

 and systematic breeding has been resorted to. And it is probable, or. 

 rather, it is positively true, that during the last fifty years greater results 

 in the breeding of all farm animals have been accomplished, and greater 

 proo-ress towards perfection have been made, than in all the time before. 

 Jacob was the first systematic breeder of whom we have any record. 

 It is tolerably certain that he understood something of the principles of 

 matin<'- cattle, else he could not have procUiccd pied and other parti-colored 

 animals in such numbers as to have assured him large profits and increase 

 in the herds of his father-in-law. But Jacob's plan consisted simply in 

 brinf'int'- too^ether cows and bulls of certain different colors, with a view to 

 securing a commingling of these colors, in the offspring. It docs not 

 appear that he made any systematic attempt to improve, by breeding, the 

 qualities of his animals as milkers, draft oxen, or beef cattle. The results 

 of such efforts, if they had ever been made, would as certainh^ have been 

 noticed as the extensive production of "ring-streaked and speckled cattle." 



II. Cattle of the Campagnas. 

 We have already spoken of the once-famous cattle of the Campagnas, 

 in the time of the Romans, Their excellence was probably due more to 



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