PKINCIPLES OF BREEDING 



In breeding and rearing animals, it is in the power ol 

 every individual to make great improvements in races 

 not already of superior blood, by selecting the best 

 formed animals to raise, and then selecting from these 

 best, the very best to breed from. Some of the following 

 principles are evident to every common obseri'er ; others 

 are the result of exact experiments and long observation 

 Some of them are well established and universally ac 

 knowledged ; others are questioned, and a few of them 

 are disputed. 



Lihe produces like. This is a general law in the ani- 

 mal and vegetable kingdoms. It is a governing princi- 

 ple thioughout animated nature. But there are some 

 slight deviations, which may be carried out to a consid- 

 erable extent and form new varieties. This general law, 

 with these few deviations, lies at the foundation of all 

 successful breeding. When we have obtained an excelleni 

 race, we can retain it with proper care. And from the 

 deviations we have a vast number of varieties, that 

 originally belonged to one variety. The principle, thai 

 like produces like, only holds good in animals of a fixed 

 race or blood stock ; for mixed breeds have no perma- 

 nent qualities. 



Like produces like, in blood stock that has been care- 

 fully bred for a white color, forty or fifty years, almost 

 every animal will be wholly white. Now as to the de- 

 viations. Select those that have a little red on them, 

 and breed from them, continuing to select those thai 

 have the most red, and after a long course of careful 

 breeding, a red race will be obtained. Then reverse and 

 select those with spots of white, and you can breed 

 bacK to the pure white. 



Sometimes the intellectual powers, or imagination, 

 may have an influence over the organic power, and 

 cause a material deviation from this general rule ; anc 

 ill some instances a strong resemblance, to generations 

 even 'ong p\st, has been revived. A cow ran with a 



