NOTES ON FASHION. 5 



harmful and this has been exemplified to some extent as 

 regards this breed in recent years by inferior specimens of 

 the most fashionable families being retained and bred from 

 at the expense of better animals of other families, which 

 have found their way to the " block " or to herds in which 

 from less careful mating their progeny have degenerated, 

 or from neglect of registration have disappeared from the 

 pages of the Herd Book. 



Another ill effect of the period of intensity of fashion, 

 now apparently somewhat on the wane, has been that the 

 desire to make cattle doubly fashionable has tended to 

 promote inbreeding. 



The present position then, shortly, seems to be that 

 certain families which twenty-five years ago occupied a 

 leading place in the list of families have increased their lead 

 and also their numbers that other families, in the list of 

 leading families then, remain there still though in some 

 cases not so strong in numbers that other families, not in 

 the list of leading families then, have gained by their per- 

 formances in the interval a right to a place there now 

 and that other less known families now, as then, exist 

 which probably only require the opportunity to take a 

 more forward place. 



Such being the position, it would seem that those 

 desirous of starting herds or of infusing fresh blood into 

 their herds, if they wish to obtain animals of the best 

 breeding and therefore most likely to breed true to type, 

 would find their selection much curtailed by setting fashion 

 at defiance, but that they would do well to realize that, to 

 get good specimens of fashionable families, they must be 

 prepared to pay the price which they command. 



The following is a short account of some of the various 

 tribes, families, and branches as they appear to exist at 



