BREED-DIFFERENCE IN ANIMALS. 251 



breeder has been to establish a breed of animals intended for 

 beef on the one hand, and a breed of animals intended for 

 milk on the other. 



Now let us see how far this theory I have laid down pre- 

 vails in these two cases. It is found very difficult to secure 

 the uniformity which is desired, even in animals intended for 

 beef. The great beef-producing breeds of cattle are calm and 

 unexcitable ; are not easily disturbed. Their brain is com- 

 paratively small ; they have not a delicate nervous organiza- 

 tion. Adverse circumstances do not disturb them materially. 

 They are organized, in all their system, in their nutritive 

 functions and in their nervous organization, for the calm and 

 imperturbable process of converting food into meat ; and so 

 it is incumbent upon them to keep themselves in as much 

 repose as possible. They are not easily throAvn off their 

 balance ; and yet, notwithstanding they are so little controlled 

 by surrounding influences, it is found impossible to secure 

 constant uniformity even in their herds. When you come to 

 another class of cattle, intended for a different purpose, you 

 meet a hundred failures where you do cue in the beef-produc- 

 ing animal. The production of milk is the re-^ult of deli- 

 cately constructed organs in the animal economy, easily 

 thrown out of condition. A good dairy-cow has a great deal 

 of brain; she is wide across the top of her head, wide be- 

 tween the eyes, and is a very sensitive animal indeed. A 

 thunder-shower will often reduce her flow of milk ; a blow 

 from a whip will often reduce it. She is easily thrown out 

 of condition. Her cerebral organization, and the functions 

 which are devoted to the production of milk, are so del- 

 icate that the rule to which I have alluded affects her very 

 sensibly ; and the breeder of dairy stock will be continually 

 wondering wh}^ it is that he cannot always raise stock as good 

 as that from which he breeds. Some of us know this by sad 

 experience. Here is a good bull, and there a good dairy-cow, 

 and the offspriug from the two may be a failure. Why is 

 this? jNIainly because all the adverse surrounding circum- 

 stances to which I have alluded affect the delicate organiza- 

 tion of this class of animals so sensibly that it is impossible 

 even to approach the law that " like produces like " in their 

 reproduction. So it becomes the farmer who is devoted to 



