Chap. XXI. SELECTION. 231 



stronger degree, all that we do not know, 70 of the history of 

 the great majority of our breeds, even of our more modern 

 breeds, agrees with the view that their production, through 

 the action of unconscious and methodical selection, has been 

 almost insensibly slow. When a man attends rather more 

 closelj" than is usual to the breeding of his animals, he is 

 almost sure to improve them to a slight extent. They are 

 in consequence valued in his immediate neighbourhood, and 

 are bred by others ; and their characteristic features, whatever 

 these may be, will then slowly but steadily be increased, 

 sometimes by methodical and almost always by unconscious 

 selection. At last a strain, deserving to be called a sub-variety, 

 becomes a little more widely known, receives a local name, 

 and spreads. The spreading will have been extremely slow 

 during ancient and less civilised times, but now is rapid. 

 By the time that the new breed had assumed a somewhat 

 distinct character, its history, hardly noticed at the time, 

 will have been completely forgotten ; for, as Low remarks, 71 

 " we know how quickly the memory of such events is 

 effaced." 



As soon as a new breed is thus formed, it is liable through 

 the same process to break up into new strains and sub- 

 varieties. For different varieties are suited for, and are 

 valued under, different circumstances. Fashion changes, but, 

 should a fashion last for even a moderate length of time, so 

 strong is the principle of inheritance, that some effect will 

 probably be impressed on the breed. Thus varieties go on 

 increasing in number, and history shows us how wonderfully 

 they have increased since the earliest records. 72 As each 

 new variety is produced, the earlier, intermediate, and less 

 valuable forms will be neglected, and perish. When a breed, 

 from not being valued, is kept in small numbers, its extinc- 

 tion almost inevitably follows sooner or later, either from 

 accidental causes of destruction or from close interbreeding ; 

 and this is an event which, in the case of well-marked breeds, 

 excites attention. The birth or production of a new domestic 

 race is so slow a process that it escapes notice ; its death or 



70 Youatt on Cattle, pp. 116,128. " Volz, ' Beitr'age zur Knlturge- 



71 ' Domesticated Animals,' p. 188. schichte,' 1852, s. 99 et passim. 



