VARIATIONS IN BREEDING. 247 



the animal ])ccomes a living reality. But you must remember 

 that Avhen the question arose in his mind how these matters 

 were to be so regulated, that every farmer could provide 

 himself with good cattle or sheep or horses, up to a specific 

 or definite standard, the whole matter was in the dark ; the 

 question was to be left for experiment. There was no law 

 to be laid down ; he could not even tix the sex, to begin 

 with ; had not even got so far as that. Nor can you establish 

 the precise quality of the animal himself, whatever his an- 

 cestors may have been. That is one great difiiculty. Science 

 can go no further ; having reached the point where there is 

 a veil drawn between it and the workings of Providence, a 

 point beyond, which the scientific investigator cannot go. 

 And thus it is, and hence it is, that the law which has been 

 laid down that "like produces like," is subject to so many 

 variations that to the practical farmer, who desires that his 

 like shall be the best like, that his cattle shall l)e standard 

 cattle, that the point to which he aims shall be the highest 

 point, is liable to be utterly discouraged in his efforts. 



Now, surrounding circumstances, I think, exercise more 

 influence than science is willing to allow in this matter of 

 breeding. The animal economy is so sensitive, that it is 

 controlled by a thousand outside influences which affect it, 

 even in its embryonic condition. It is so in our own race, it 

 is so in every other race ; and the higher the race in the scale 

 of animal existence, the more readily do all those outside and 

 accidental influences work upon the embryo and the animal 

 itself. If you invest your money largely in animals intended 

 to give you a perfect herd, you expect, under the old law that 

 "like produces like," to supply yourself with a herd as good 

 as that with which you commenced your operations. But 

 how mau}^ failures lie in every man's path who undertakes 

 this ! Every breeder knows that valuable animals are the 

 exception and not the rule. Every breeder of fine cattle 

 knows that the production of a male animal of superior merit 

 is the most difficult thing in the world ; and he ought to 

 know, if he is a keen and close observer, that hardly one 

 male animal produced in his flocks and herds, out of a hun- 

 dred, is fit to reproduce those herds. You know perfectly well 

 how distinguished in the annals of the animal kingdom those 



