122 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



structure ; and at length he will arrive at a clear con- 

 ception, not so much of beauty of form (although that 

 is a pleasing object to contemplate) as of that outline 

 and proportion of parts with which utility is oftenest 

 combined. Then carefully viewing his stock he will 

 consider where they approach to, and how far they 

 wander from, this utility of form ; and he will be anx- 

 ious to preserve or to increase the one and to supply 

 the deficiency of the other. He will endeavor to select 

 from his own stock those animals that excel in the most 

 valuable points, and particularly those which possess 

 the greatest number of these points, and he will un- 

 hesitatingly condemn every beast that manifests defi- 

 ciency in any one important point. He will not, how- 

 ever, too long confine himself to his own stock, unless 

 it be a very numerous one. The breeding from close 

 affinities has many advantages to a certain extent. It 

 was the source whence sprung the cattle and sheep of 

 Bakewell and the superior cattle of Colling ; and to it 

 must also be traced the speedy degeneracy, the abso- 

 lute disappearance of the New Leicester cattle, and, in 

 the hands of many agriculturists, the impairment of 

 constitution and decreased value of the New Leicester 

 sheep and of the Short-horns. He will therefore seek 

 some change in his stock exevj second or third year, 

 and that change is most conveniently effected by in- 



