578 PRACTICAL PROBLEMS 



be done with reference both to what is desirable and to what 

 will pay ; hence the necessity of considering all phases of the 

 selection problem from a double standpoint. Each consideration 

 outlined is self-evident, yet each is of sufficient importance to 

 merit further consideration. 



SECTION I IDEALS IN SELECTION 



Among the multitude of variations which every breed and 

 every variety will present, the breeder must know which are 

 useful. The great mass must be discarded, from the mere point 

 of numbers, and no one cause of failure is more common than 

 a vacillating policy regarding standards of selection. 



This uncertainty is due to no other fact than that the breeder 

 does not know quite what he wants. He is " in the market " 

 for "any good thing" that may turn up. In the course of his 

 breeding operations a great many new and more or less promis- 

 ing things will appear. Unless he has unlimited means and 

 boundless space for his operations, these must be discarded 

 with seeming ruthlessness, or he will speedily have an assort- 

 ment of novelties which if bred among themselves will overrun 

 his premises, and if bred into his permanent stock will produce 

 a veritable jumble, out of which no good thing can come. In 

 this way ancestry and pedigree can become so hopelessly mixed 

 as to be worthless. This may happen with any breed, and even 

 within the limits of purity of blood ; indeed it has happened 

 over and over again, in all breeds, through the misguided enthu- 

 siasm of breeders working without well-defined standards. 



Standards wisely fixed. Standards must not be left to chance. 

 They must not be warped or altered by novelties, no matter how 

 curious or attractive. They must be fixed in advance, like build- 

 ing plans and specifications, and should be fixed in the light of 

 what is needed and what the breed is likely to afford. Indeed, 

 the standards should be roughly fixed before the breed is chosen. 



Once chosen, standards should be preserved unchanged. As 

 the artist sees his picture before he mixes his colors, and as the 

 sculptor chips away at his marble to bring out the particular 

 figure that stands in his mind, undisturbed and undissuaded 



