SELECTION 



597 



Rational standards. In the interest of rational breeding, let 

 ideals be made up of essentials, a few strong lines, which, 

 like the bold strokes of a great painting, make the picture stand 

 strongly out, unimpaired by a multitude of unimportant details. 



Summary. The whole purpose of selection is to modify the 

 type to better suit our purposes, to prevent so far as possible 

 the production of undesirable individuals, and to reduce the 

 population as near as may be to those that are useful in the 

 highest attainable degree. 



If the last item is to be accomplished, then the " pull " of 

 the ancestry must be in line with the immediate parentage, which 

 means that there must be a constant, not a fluctuating, standard 

 of selection. 



The probability of finding all desirable qualities in a single 

 individual reduces rapidly as the number of characters multiplies. 

 It is represented by the product of the chances of each, and if 

 many characters are involved it becomes practically impossible 

 to find them all in the same individual. This leads inevitably 

 to heterogeneous breeding within the breed, and to confusion of 

 ancestry with respect to separate characters. 



The practical way to " fix " a large number of characters is to 

 do it with one or two at a time, or at most a few at a time, 

 adding others as it becomes comparatively easy to secure them 

 all in the same individual. Common sense dictates that we 

 should begin with the most important from the utility stand- 

 point. In all breeds there are too many animals that do not 

 conform to type, even approximately, and most standards of 

 selection call for too many points. 



Fads and fashion, confined for the most part to minor matters, 

 are the bane of good breeding. They must be reckoned with for 

 economic reasons ; but in the effort to meet market demands it 

 is sometimes difficult to avoid the fixing of decidedly objection- 

 able characters. 



It is the "top," rather than the " foundation," that gives 

 character to the pedigree, and in all cases the individual should 

 conform to the standard of selection. This calls for a degree of 

 detailed information about individuals for at least five or six 

 generations back, which we do not ordinarily possess, and which 



