580 PRACTICAL PROBLEMS 



any desired form, while in truth it is very old material, with 

 which many men have worked before, sometimes for profit, 

 often for amusement merely. 



And the breed has inherited the results of all these experi- 

 ments, both bad and good, so that this material is in some 

 respects the better and in some the worse for what others have 

 tried to do with it. The most ordinary business sense and the 

 commonest biological principles indicate that before the breeder 

 begins serious operations he should know all that can be known 

 of the breed or the variety he proposes to work with. In no 

 other way can he make intelligent selection. 



A few crude examples will suffice to illustrate. Many breeders 

 of English strains of cattle will not only destroy a white calf, 

 but will consider its appearance an evidence of impurity of blood, 

 not knowing that these breeds in general have descended from 

 the wild white cattle of Great Britain. It is only recently that 

 white has been restored to favor as a good Shorthorn color. 



The Berkshire swine are the result of a cross of the large 

 English hog with the small, thin-haired, plum-colored Neapolitan, 

 and more than one Berkshire herd has been ruined by selecting 

 for breeding purposes the plump, quick-maturing, fine-haired, 

 and most attractive pigs. 



A famous breeder of Kentucky was remarkably successful 

 with Shorthorns, yet in his efforts to secure a high head and a low 

 brisket he forgot the natural wild type, and speedily his breeding 

 came to be known by its sloping rump and " split quarters." 



The breeder should know the peculiarities of his blood. The 

 first information needed by the prospective breeder is a good 

 knowledge of the inherent faults of the breed. He needs to 

 know, for example, that the Berkshires are naturally deficient in 

 the hams, and the Poland-Chinas in the shoulders ; that the 

 Duroc Jerseys are uneven in type, and the Chester Whites a 

 bit coarse in the bone. He needs to realize that the Jersey is 

 sometimes extremely delicate ; that many of the Holstein-Frie- 

 sians are rough, and that the breed is preeminently short-tailed, 

 hence the provision in the scale of points that the bone of 

 the tail should reach the hock, which was but rarely the case in 

 the foundation stock of the breed. 



