THOROUGHBRED CATTLE. 133 



sterility or disease, bred out. No honest man will offer the 

 services of a bull, and take a thoroughbred price, who is not 

 as nearly certain as human and brute testimony can make him, 

 that his animal is true to brand. 



After all, is this improvement in breeds anything but a 

 sheathing that the skill of man has added to the framework 

 which he found at hand, and which is liable to drop off when 

 neglected? Now, much of this excellence is maintained by 

 good keeping, judicious selections and kind treatment. 



It will hardly be contended that "blood-stock" never pro- 

 duces an animal unfit to breed from. So, after all, we have 

 to be on our guard, lest we lose this artificial finish, and our 

 stock drop back to where we started from. If but for a short 

 time our vigilance be withdrawn, our patchwork, now so 

 beautiful and excellent, will fall ofi\ and leave us the old field, 

 bare of our improvements, when we shall have to start anew, 

 or wait for the slow process of development to bring our 

 cattle up to the type intended for them by the great Architect. 



One theory that thorough-breeders advance I consider erro- 

 neous ; that is, that cattle, and, I suppose, other stock (and 

 perhaps man) , are more likely to transmit their bad qualities 

 than their good ones ; that is, if I understand them, if for in- 

 stance, either sire or dam of any animal from which we pro- 

 pose to breed (I am now alluding to grades ; of course tho- 

 roughbreds have no inferior relations) happen to be related, 

 as they always are to progenitors, inferior in all, or at least 

 many desirable qualities, then this animal is much more likely 

 to perpetuate the undesirable qualities of its ancestors than to 

 transmit any improvement upon the old stock which it may 

 possess. This, if it be the law, renders improvement by selec- 

 tions impossible. The original thorough-breeders would have 

 found themselves retrograding instead of advancing. No, I 

 believe the law leads upward, and all that the skill of man does 

 is to hasten that perfection which nature is finally leading to 

 in all things. 



One great error which we small formers and breeders fall 

 into, or overlook, is our inattention to our dams. We are con- 

 stantly using any, however inferior, dams which we may hap- 

 pen to have, or can obtain, thinking if w^e can obtain the ser- 

 vice of a tolerably good sire the progeny will be all right. Vain 



