INBREEDING. 



ONE of the first problems which presents itself 

 to the cattle-breeder is, What definite plan shall 

 be followed in order to secure the best results? 

 Nature's method seems to be a wide and gen- 

 eral system of selection, in which the strong 

 and vigorous are the winners and the weaker 

 are crushed out. Among wild cattle the more 

 lusty bulls have their choice of the cows in a 

 way that under natural selection insures the 

 best results to the race. No data under these 

 circumstances can possibly exist as to how 

 closely or how remotely such animals are inter- 

 related, except it were in some few isolated and 

 unimportant cases where a few animals may 

 have chanced to be secluded from their kind. 

 Under the normal wild state the tendency, esti- 

 mated by the laws of " average," would be to 

 maintain a nearly perfect balance year in and 

 year out, generation after generation. If the 

 conditions of life should suddenly change the 

 result on such wild cattle would be to deterio- 

 rate or to improve the average according as the 

 change was for their advantage or disadvan- 

 tage. It is quite apparent that no question of 

 breeding intrudes itself here. Nature's selec- 



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