THE SELECTION OF ANIMALS 25 



grown to provide milk only, some to provide meat only, 

 and some to provide milk and meat. Some breeds of 

 sheep are kept primarily for mutton production, others 

 primarily for wool production, and yet others for both 

 uses. Likewise some breeds of swine are maintained 

 mainly for the purpose of producing carcasses with rela- 

 tively heavy hams and shoulders, and a large amount of 

 fat, while others are maintained primarily to produce a 

 large percentage of high priced side meat, with lighter 

 hams and shoulders, and a large proportion of lean dis- 

 tributed through the carcass. The former are now gen- 

 erally spoken of as lard hogs and the latter as bacon. 

 Others again have carcasses a sort of mean between the 

 two. The intermediate form in swine may not be quite so 

 pronounced as in other classes of farm animals, but it ex- 

 ists, nevertheless. It should also be observed that the 

 intermediate or dual types are, in the meantime, more 

 numerously kept than the other types. 



It is manifest, therefore, that should animals primarily 

 adapted to one specific use be chosen and -maintained 

 for the other line or lines of production for which other 

 animals of the same class have high adaptation, the end 

 sought would not be well attained, and so far as attained 

 it would be at an undue sacrifice of food and labor. The 

 same will prove true when animals adapted to two lines 

 of production are chosen in lieu of animals of the same 

 class primarily adapted to one line of production, where 

 that one line only is wanted. For instance, to seek the 

 highest quality of profitable meat from a high type dairy 

 cow, or the most abundant milk produ tion from a high 

 type beef cow, would be a forlorn hope. Likewise to ex- 

 pect either of these to furnish meat and milk in well bal- 

 anced equilibrium, as it is furnished by the dual types of 

 cows, or to expect the latter to equal the single purpose 

 cows in their own specific line of production would be an 

 unwarranted expectation. It is exceedingly important, 



