250 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



which every good breeder, iu this and every other land, 

 aims at. 



Now the higher you rise in the scale of animal being, the 

 more thoroughly this law applies. I do not mean to say that 

 all the lower orders of the animal kingdom are equally affect- 

 ed by this law ; the variations that take place in them are 

 less. You can breed a dozen pigs, if you are so disposed, 

 and think it is an economical business (which I do not), and 

 they will closely resemble each other ; nothing interferes with 

 or disturbs" their moral nature. They hold such a position in 

 the scale of being that you may not only produce uniformity 

 under adverse circumstances, but very often perfection. You 

 can reproduce dogs in the same way, especially common dogs, 

 — cur-dogs. But when you go above these classes of animals 

 into the higher range, what diversity you find ! For in- 

 stance, you undertake, as I have done, to establish a family 

 of trotting-horses. Now the trotting-horse is the most 

 thoroughly and accurately oj'ganized animal that Ave have, 

 next to man. In all moral faculties, in physical conforma- 

 tion, in all those powers which make an animal self- 

 reliant and strong, a trotting-horse is superior to- all others. 

 And it is on account of the delicate organization of that ani- 

 mal that the external circumstances to which I have alluded 

 affect his reproduction to such a degree that there is no cer- 

 tainty whatever in breeding him. Very few horses, no matter 

 what their speed, have succeeded in producing horses of equal 

 speed. So horses that possessed fine tempers have been so 

 affected by the brutal treatment of their owners, that they 

 have failed to transmit those qualities which made them 

 especially valuable. 



Bearing in mind these striking facts, let us now consider 

 more immediately the special business of breeding cattle. 

 The objects which the farmer has iu the reproduction of his 

 cattle are two. There are two classes which the fiirmer 

 requires for his own purposes ; and usually, either from neces- 

 sity or choice, he breeds them according to the circumstances 

 surrounding him. One is a^lass of cattle for beef, and the 

 other a class of cattle for milk. You may say that the two go 

 together. Partially, and under fortunate circumstances, they 

 do ; but the great business of the scientific and accurate 



