1300 CYCLOPEDIA OF LIVE STOCK AND COMPLETE STOCK DOCTOR. 



to a low-priced and inferior animal. If a mare be worth breeding at all, 

 she should be bred to the very best stallion of her class whose services 

 can be secured for a reasonable stud fee. Even a rather inferior raare, 

 if mated with a first-class sire, will in all probability produce a fair foal, 

 a better animal than herself, but usually inferior to the sire. Deform- 

 ities and diseases are not always transmitted to the progeny, but fre- 

 (juently they are affected for three or four generations by such things. 

 When accidents happen to mares during pregnancy, the offspring is 

 liable to be affected thereby. If the law of heredity were absolute or 

 invariable, all breeding operations would be of a very monotonous char- 

 acter, but inferior animals or plants can be improved by careful breed- 

 ing, and this is called 



II. The Law of Variation. 



On this law the breeder places most of his expectations in breed- 

 ing. For instance, grain or corn will adapt itself gradually to what- 

 ever climate you continue to grow it in. The coarse corn of the 

 South, sown in this country, will grow tall and rank, and but few 

 grains will ripen before the early frosts. Each time it is grown it 

 becomes better and better until it becomes adapted to the climate, unless 

 there comes a very early frost, when the whole will be destroyed. Most 

 vegetables can be traced to some worthless little plants found on some 

 of the hills of Great Britain or France. The various races of human 

 beings are accounted for by the law of variation. The same law applies 

 to domesticated animals. Whatwas the original of each species we can 

 form only our own opinions. As an instance, we may take the turkey, 

 unknown in the old world until about two hundred years ago, and now 

 the varieties are numerous, and differ greatly in size, form, color, etc. 

 All these varieties have been developed gradually by careful breeding 

 from the wild turkey. These changes can be traced to three causes, 

 viz. : climate, supply and nature of food, and habit. Climate has great 

 influence on the constitution and organization. Animals of hot climates 

 are very different, especially in regard to the skin and its coverings, to 

 those of cold climates. In warm climates the covering is thin and light, 

 while in cold, wet climates there is a flne wool next the skin, and grow- 

 ing through that there is a coarse variety of hair to throw off the wet, 

 etc. The great work of Nature is to protect the true skin from wet and 

 cold, which affect the internal organization. 



The supply of food has a great influence on the form and habits of 

 animals. In the low, natural pastures of England, where food is 

 plentiful and of good quality, the stock is large, heavy and indolent, 

 mature and fatten quickly, while on the mountains of Wales or the 



