CHAPTER XX 



ANIMAL BREEDING 

 SECTION I ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 



Advantages. Animal breeding possesses three substantial 

 advantages over plant breeding : 



1. More freedom from climatic and other local conditions, so 

 that the product is fitted for a wider range of service. 



2. Relatively good prices, because the individual has a high 

 value and is not so easily or so rapidly multiplied. 



3. Involving superior beings, animal breeding becomes one of 

 the highest forms of art. In this we are dealing not only with 

 superb physical form, but with mental qualities as well, and here 

 the breeder may come into sympathetic personal relations with the 

 products of his hand and of his genius. The same sympathetic 

 relation will be claimed by the lover of plants, and especially by 

 the lover of flowers ; but the fact remains that only with animals 

 do we find consciousness and intelligent response to our moods 

 and passions. What feeling on earth, outside of human affection, 

 can approach the attachment existing between a man and his 

 horse, or between a dog and his master ? 



Disadvantages. But the animal breeder must face a long line 

 of limitations and disadvantages. Some of these can be easily 

 singled out and stated, others are too subtle for putting into 

 words : 



1. Numbers are necessarily few, and reproduction is relatively 

 slow, making selection difficult from mere scarcity of material. 



2. Individuals are costly, and those of high breeding powers 

 extremely so. This makes really good breeding not only ex- 

 pensive but in a measure hazardous, for prices have a way 

 of taking a sudden drop, often with little or no warning 

 when nothing better than the open market affords an outlet 

 for surplus stock. 



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