638 CYCLOPEDIA OF LIVE STOCK AND COMPLETE STOCK DOCTOR. 



ever parent is of the purest blood will l)e more generally represented in 

 the offspring; but, as the male is usually more carefully selected, and of 

 purer blood than the female, it generally follows that he exerts more 

 influence than she does ; the reverse being the case when she is of more 

 unmixed bJood than the sire. 



That the relative ages and vigor of the parents have a decisive influence 

 on the offspring there is no doubt. Hence the necessity that animals be 

 mature before they are allowed to breed, since only mature animals can 

 be relied upon to produce offspring of the highest form and vigor. And 

 on the other hand, that excessive age in either male or female, will dimin- 

 ish potency is too well known to be denied. It is certain, also, that 

 where there is a marked prepotency in either the male or female parent, 

 the progeny will most closely resemble the prepotent progenitor. The 

 following case is reported by Mr. Talcot in the " Country Gentleman : " 

 " I had a nice cow with nice bag and teats, which I took to a bull in the 

 neighborhood, and the produce was a heifer-calf, which was raised be- 

 cause of the good milking-qualities of her dam ; but when she became a 

 cow, instead of the good qualities of her dam as Avas expected, her bag 

 and teats were more like those of a sheep than of a good dairy-cow. I 

 then began to investigate the cause, and found that the heifer was the 

 counterpart of the dam of the bull, she being an ordinary cow Mith a 

 small bag and still smaller teats, and from that time to this I have found 

 that too freq.uently that is the case, especially if the bull was from such 

 stock or family of light milkers that it was not desirable to perpetuate 

 them. I remember distinctly tht first pure-bred Short-Horn bull I ever 

 had, that the bag of his dam was the largest in the hind-quarters, conse- 

 quently that she gave the most milk from the hind-teats, and that quality 

 was transmitted to the majority of his heifers when they came to be 

 cows, their bags tending largely in the hind-quarters. And I think, from 

 such observations, that there can be no doubt that such is the case gen- 

 erally." 



Mr. Sedgmck says, the supply of milk is hereditarily influenced by 

 the bull, 7-ather than by the cows from which the offspring is directly 

 descended. Of this there is no doubt ; but it is not so clear, as asserted 

 by him, that the character of the secretion, as regards both quantity and 

 quality of the milk, is derived chiefly from the paternal grand-mother by 

 atavic descent. 



XIII. Hereditary Influence of Parents. 



Mr. Walker, writing on intermarriage, and the physiology of breeding, 

 gives the following : 



"It is a fact, established by my observations, that, in animals of the 

 same variety, either male or female parent may give either series of or- 



