CHAPTER XVII 

 BREEDING STOCK 



SALES and show classifications both distinguish between 

 market and breeding animals. The former are quite 

 generally unsexed and command consideration only for 

 what they themselves are. Breeding animals, on the 

 other hand, have more than an intrinsic worth, they are 

 the progenitors of future generations to whom are to be 

 transmitted the characters of a numerous ancestry. 

 Therefore, breeding animals should not be judged merely 

 as individuals, but as representatives of an ancestry 

 whose influence will dominate the succeeding generations 

 of which they are the progenitors. 



306. In the selection of breeding animals it must be 

 borne in mind that they do not represent, in their physical 

 make-up, all the characters which they have inherited, nor 

 yet all the characters which they are capable of trans- 

 mitting. Thus, the failure in the stud of some show- 

 ring champions can be accounted for, likewise the superior 

 value, as sires, of some individuals, themselves incapable 

 of winning most humble honors in the show ring. 



306. The successful sire or dam is the one which will 

 produce, regularly, progeny of uniform excellence, true to 

 type and possessing constitutional vigor sufficient to in- 

 sure their living productive and reproductive lives (Figs. 

 146 and 147). 



Reproduction has been termed a superabundant de- 



297 



