598 PRACTICAL PROBLEMS 



the records do not undertake to supply, but which breed histories 

 should afford for the enlightenment of young breeders and to 

 the end that unfortunate combinations may not be unwittingly 

 made. The student will recall the difference between brothers, 

 which shows the need for selection even within the pedigree. 



When a family becomes famous it is bred with less ability and 

 care than before, whereas it is deserving of greater and more 

 careful attention. But conditions are against it : the individuals 

 have a high commercial value, and everything goes at a strong 

 price, indifferent and bad as well as good. As long as men 

 will pay for breeding, regardless of quality, breeders are likely 

 to sell everything that will find a buyer. A large number of 

 breeders have reported to the writer that they sell 100 per cent 

 of their animals for breeding purposes. Under conditions such 

 as these all selection is practically abandoned, and we should not 

 expect longer to maintain excellence. Thus it is that the very 

 success of a popular strain is likely to prove its undoing. 



This state of affairs sufficiently accounts for most disasters that 

 have overtaken fashionable families in the past, and we are not 

 yet warranted in assuming that a favorite strain is bound quickly 

 to wear out or otherwise come to an end, making it necessary 

 that we should be forever effecting new combinations. Indeed, 

 there is the best of ground for the confident belief that if a 

 tithe of the labor were bestowed upon the preservation of a use- 

 ful strain that was expended to originate it we might have it with 

 us indefinitely, to the infinite good of the breed and the lasting 

 service of man. It is not a continually recurring strain of new 

 creations that is most needed, but rather well-protected and 

 solidly bred lines of long-established excellence and unquestioned 

 ancestry. Here, in the opinion of the writer, lies the field for 

 future effort of American breeders. 



