SELECTIONS IN BREEDING. 21 



that sort of pastime. However, if bred from stock that is kept 

 exclusively for the fox hunt, they are true to their hereditary 

 instincts. 



"VVe are familiar also with the fact, that the fecundity of certain 

 animals and families is hereditary. Sows will have twelve pigs at a 

 litter whose dams have been alike fruitful for several generations. 

 Cows that bear twins or are habitually large milkers, not only transmit 

 that quality to their own female offspring but transmit to their male off- 

 spring the quality of begetting others with like characteristics. It is 

 well understood, however, that in order to maintain their hereditary 

 qualities in perfection, two things in particular are necessary — one is, 

 that the animal be kept and used for the purpose that calls into requi- 

 sition the peculiar qualities or characteristics for which the animal or 

 breed is noted. As the quality was developed in part by use, so it 

 mwst be maintained ; and if allowed to grow idle or indolent and fall 

 into disuse, the quality is lost or greatly impaired, and will not be 

 transmitted to the offspring in the force and positiveness with which 

 it originally existed in the given animal or family. 



The second consideration or law is, that in cross-breeding the selec- 

 tions be made of such animals as maintain the given quality in like or 

 greater degree, and in whom it has also been used and not lain idle 

 and dormant. It can also be lost or confused by conflicting traits or 

 qualities by cross-breeding into or from families where the trait is 

 lacking, or where conflicting and contrary traits existed. These two 

 points or considerations must be kept constantly in view if we would 

 maintain or transmit the particular qualities desirable in breeding 

 animals. 



CHANGES WKOUGHT BY SELECTIONS IN BREEDING. 



All our domestic animals have been, to a great degree, moulded and fashioned 

 by the hand of man. The same uniformity that now characterizes the bison, 

 the elk and the deer, belonged to the horse, the cow, the sheep and the hog, 

 in a state of nature. The ponderous English cart horse, the fleet courser, and 

 the diminutive Shetland pony, are all descended from originals that were as 

 uniform in their characteristics as are the members of a herd of bison upon 

 our Western prairies. The Short-horn, the Hereford, the Devon, the Jersey, and 

 all of the various breeds into which our cattle are now divided, are descended 

 from the same original type. The changed conditions of life to which they 

 have been subjected by domestication— the variety of uses to which they hav« 

 been put, the food upon which they have subsisted, the climate in which they 

 have been reared, and selection for especial uses, have produced the variations 

 which are now so apparent. 



