VARIATION IN GENERAL II 



when we undertake to improve the quality of wool we limit our 

 attempts to the sheep, with which wool bearing is a natural 

 character. Whether the horse or the hog could be made to grow 

 wool is a question. If the hen could be made to produce milk 

 or the cow to grow feathers, that would be the introduction of 

 a new character in the strictest sense of the term. 



But nothing similar to this has ever been accomplished by man. 

 The particular group of characters that constitutes a given species 

 appears to be strangely fixed, and improvement seems to con- 

 sist in changing the relations of these characters among them- 

 selves rather than in the introduction of new members. How 

 this particular grouping arose originally and how a new member 

 (character) might be introduced are questions for the student of 

 general evolution. They are questions, moreover, upon which the 

 present state of knowledge sheds little light, and, so far as is 

 known, the study of the practical breeder is limited to methods 

 of dealing with groups of characters already associated and con- 

 stituting well-marked types and forms. 



SECTION IV MEANING OF THE TERM "CHARACTER" 



This is a much-abused term, loosely used in a variety of mean- 

 ings. For example, when an individual differs slightly from 

 another we say he has different characteristics.. What we really 

 mean is simply that his characters differ in their development, 

 not that he has different characters. His bone is not so round 

 or his hock so crooked ; the crops are not so full or the milk so 

 rich ; the eye of the potato is not so sunken or the color of the 

 fruit so high in one specimen as compared with another, and 

 we say loosely that the characters are different. 



Now the truth is the characters are not different in kind but 

 only in degree and proportion. We say of one horse that he has 

 speed and of another that he has not speed. The fact is that 

 they both have some speed, but only one has enough to attract 

 attention and be worthy of remark. This use of terms, unfortu- 

 nate as it may be, is probably too common to be changed ; indeed, 

 the mere use of terms is of less importance than a clear compre- 

 hension of the facts. 



