APPLICATION OF THEORY TO PRACTICE. 



I HAVE always placed the highest possible 

 value on a thorough understanding of the great 

 natural laws of reproduction. I have, there- 

 fore, dwelt upon them at great length, and yet 

 have only outlined them. I could wish that all 

 breeders of cattle could have the inclination, 

 time, and opportunity to master the investiga- 

 tions of Darwin, Lucas, Ribot, and a host of 

 other careful students and laborious collectors 

 of facts in this field. But we must be content 

 for the present with what we have in hand and 

 proceed to examine the applications of these 

 laws to the practical principles of breeding. 

 The true aim of every enterprising breeder is 

 to hold fast to the good and stretch forward 

 toward the better progressive conservatism 

 in fine. He must maintain the good which 

 came into his keeping ; if possible he will im- 

 prove upon it. 



The pole star of the breeder's career is, there- 

 fore, the 'law that "like produces like." By it 

 he steers under all ordinary circumstances. 

 Ordinarily speaking, then, the breeder expects 

 to have his stock breed like themselves ; breed 

 "true/' as the colloquial expression is. This is 



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