GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 61 



while each great -gran dam or sire contributes 

 one-eighth only; and the farther the removal 

 the more unimportant does any given factor or 

 cross become for good or evil in a pedigree. 

 However desirable it may be to have a record 

 connecting our horses with Flying Guilders, 

 Eclipse or Messenger, and our cattle with Hub- 

 back or Favorite, at a distance of ten to twenty 

 generations, it is manifestly of far greater im- 

 portance to know that our own cattle and 

 horses are good, and that their ancestors for 

 the last four or five generations were of sur- 

 passing excellence. If our own animals are 

 good, and the. top crosses have been uniformly 

 of the same character, we may reasonably ex- 

 pect the progeny to be satisfactory; while, on 

 the contrary, if there be no special merit in the 

 sire and clam, or their immediate ancestors, we 

 may show as many lines as we like to some 

 great ancestor ten or fifteen generations re- 

 moved an'd it will not wipe out the stain of the 

 defective recent crosses. 



No pedigree can be a good one that does not 

 usually produce good animals; no pedigree 

 should be prized above other pedigrees unless 

 it usual ly produces better animals. If, tried by 

 this test, any pedigree fails, no matter how 

 much it may have been idolized, its value is 

 fictitious and its effect is hurtful rather than 

 beneficial. The only true aristocracy of blood 



