BREEDING BACK. 2G5 



to possess pure predominating blood, that is sure to assert itself 

 in the progeny. 



REVERSION. 



Oil. — Even with those animals that have for some centuries 

 been bred without crossing, there will be some tendency to reversion, 

 so that none of them will produca fac similes of themselves with 

 the same certainty as the mouse or the lion, or any animal whose 

 original characteristics have not been altered by selection in 

 breeding. 



G42. — By long-continued, careful selection, and artificial 

 feeding and care, the cart horse has been produced as large as 

 possible, and the race horse as fleet as possible, and in both we 

 have selected the temper we preferred, and the form we considered 

 most useful and handsome. The natural consequence is that we 

 must carefully continue to breed from animals selected with the 

 same object, or the cart horse will degenerate in size and form, 

 and the racer in fleetness. Both would gradually return to what 

 the original stock was, from which they have been elevated by 

 selection. 



TRANSMISSION. 



Giij. — Animals that are supposed to have been equally well 

 bred differ extremely in the power of impressing their own 

 likeness on their offspring, so that some horses, and some mares, 

 will breed colts exactly like themselves, and others seem incapable 

 of transmitting any of their own qualities. This can only be 

 proved by results, and the real value of any animal as a parent 

 can only be certainly ascertained by the character of the progeny 

 actually produced. 



Gi4. — Xo animal should be bred from that does not possess 

 the form, size, and qualities you want in the offspring. Xo 

 pedigree, real or fictitious, can compensate for inferiority in the 

 animal itself, but even when you have selected the most perfect 

 animal, and the most satisfactory pedigree, it may after all prove 

 to have little power to transmit its own qualities to its progeny. 

 Some few mares are valued' as brood mares, because they always 



