132 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



may, in your practical wisdom, devise tlie means to obviate 

 them. 



An individual, however distinguished he may be in himself, 

 has, in consequence of tliis law of inheritance, combined in 

 himself a variety of elements which may reappear in his 

 progeny. Now, remember that an animal may be as distin- 

 guished an individual as you could wish to have as the head 

 of aMesirable progeny on your farm, and yet, notwithstanding 

 these apparently eminent qualifications, he may be vitiated for 

 the purpose for which you want him because of some character- 

 istics of his ancestors. An animal is not made up of the 

 elements of his father and mother alone ; he has also the ele- 

 ments of his grandfather and of his grandmother, and he has 

 the elements of his whole race behind. Now, within certain 

 limits, these ancestral elements come up again, and they come 

 up again especially in the third generation. There is a singu- 

 lar law which pervades male animated nature throughout, 

 which is recognized as a physiological principle, and that is, 

 that some features of an animal are transmitted, not so much 

 directly to his immediate descendants, but to his grandchildren, 

 to the third generation. You must, therefore, before you can 

 be sure of proceeding in the right way, know the ancestry of 

 your breeding animals for at least three generations back ; 

 otherwise you may have cropping out the characteristics of 

 the grandfather or grandmother where you least expected 

 them ; and the grandfather or grandmother of that distin- 

 guished individual may be the last animal you would want 

 to have on your farm. Do not, then, trust animals that are 

 trumpeted all over the country as distinguished animals, before 

 you know what were their grandparents, otherwise you may be 

 greatly disappointed and deceived. That is the first condition 

 of successful breeding. You must know that you have a family 

 which has ancestral qualities to be depended upon before you 

 introduce that animal as an element of growth into your herd. 

 I am glad that I do not know any of the valuable and cele- 

 brated animals in the community, because I am able to speak 

 with a degree of independence which I should not possess if I 

 knew my friend A, B, or C had a valuable bull, or a valuable 

 horse, which yielded him so much income, and whose reputa- 

 tion it was desirable should be kept up. I liave no such friends, 



