IRRIGATION AND WATER STORAGE. 151 



handsome, shaggy rugged West Highlanders, so suggestive 

 of mountains and forests and heather-clad moors. The 

 notable dairy breeds of Europe dealt with in the chapters 

 on dairying the Ayrshires, Jerseys, Kerrys, Holsteins.have 

 all found favour. The breeders here are not stinted in 

 the material they have to operate on. 



Points in Breeding. That from the male parent is 

 mainly derived the physical strength and structure and 

 outward characteristics, and the locomotive system. From 

 the female parent, the internal structure, the vital organs, 

 and in a much greater proportion than from the male, the 

 constitution, temper, and habit, in which endurance and 

 " bottom " are included. That the purer the race of the 

 parent the more certainty there is of its transmitting its 

 qualities to the offspring. Say, two animals are mated, and 

 where one is of purer descent than the other, then, he or she 

 will exercise the most influence in stamping the character of 

 the progeny, particularly when the greater purity is on the 

 side of the male. That apart from disturbing influences or 

 causes, the male, if of pure race and descended from a stock 

 of uniform colour, stamps the colour of the offspring. That 

 the influence of the first male is not unfrequently protracted 

 beyond the birth of the offspring of which he is parent, and 

 his mark is left upon subsequent progeny. That the 

 transmission of disease of the vital organs is most likely if 

 on the side of the female, and diseases of the joints if on 

 the side of the male parent. 



The physiology of life in relation to domesticated 

 animals and birds, the question of the distinctive influences 

 of the sexes, is of essential importance to the stock-breeder 

 in all branches, from horses to poultry and pigeons. That 

 each sex has an allotted part in stamping the offspring 

 with hereditary properties becomes obvious in every stage, 

 but how and to what extent the distinctive attributes are 

 made dominant is not so clear. Experiments in breeding 

 for the purpose of elucidating this mystery must be 

 conducted with due regard to the relative qualities of the 

 sexes. When one of a long-fixed type is mated with 

 another of mixed breeding, it follows almost for a certainty 

 that the influence of the former will overbalance that of 



