THE SELECTION OF ANIMALS 39 



direction as in milk making. It follows then that 

 highest attainment in milk and also in beef production 

 cannot be secured in one and the same bovine. The same is 

 true of speed and force in the horse, mutton and wool 

 making in the sheep, and fat and lean production in 

 swine. But this fact is in no sense antagonistic with 

 medium attainment in both directions when the animals 

 have been so bred. 



In the face of these irrevocable laws, it has been 

 claimed that a cattle beast of dairy or scrub blood will 

 make gains as cheaply and as quickly as a steer of beef 

 blood, some tests conducted at experiment stations seem 

 to favor this view. Other tests, but probably not so 

 many, favor the opposite view. With reference to the 

 former it may be said that they relate to periods of feed- 

 ing of short duration, and it may be they are accounted 

 for in part by the leaner condition in which dairy and 

 scrub animals usually are when the period of fattening 

 begins, and in part because of the influence of individual 

 vigor on digestion. 



This explains why, in the face of the fact, that the 

 compact form, other things being equal, will produce 

 gains most cheaply and quickly, a less compact form 

 will in certain instances, excel in both respects. It also 

 explains why, though constitutional vigor is usually most 

 strikingly associated with good chest development, ani- 

 mals with less of chest development will frequently 

 possess more vigor than the former. 



Nevertheless the fact remains, that the unchangeable 

 law of transmission that like begets like, other things be- 

 ing equal, should and doubtless will enable the well bred 

 beef animal to make gains more quickly and cheaply 

 than the well bred dairy, common or scrub animal. If 

 this is not true, then by parity of - reasoning it should 

 follow, other things being equal, that this high class beef 

 animal should under certain conditions produce milk 

 as abundantly and cheaply as the h- h class dairy animal, 



