218 CATTLE-BREEDING. 



sire and dam of every animal they are to breed 

 from. It is because animals through sire and 

 dam inherit the natures and characters of their 

 grandparents that men wish to know of them; 

 it is because they now and again revert to the 

 character of a more remote ancestor that they 

 desire to trace back several generations ; it is, 

 further, because they have learned that the 

 longer time and the greater number of genera- 

 tions a family or breed has maintained a cer- 

 tain grade of merit the more surely will each 

 succeeding generation reproduce it, that they 

 seek a pedigree of as great length and far ram- 

 ifications as possible. All these conclusions are 

 natural and logical deductions from the laws 

 of inheritance. 



l Is, then, a pedigree a guaranty of excellence ? 

 The veriest child knows better. The inference 

 justified by the laws of Nature is no more and 

 no less than the simple proposition that as 

 are the progenitors so will the offspring be. If 

 the ancestors are not good neither will the 

 descendants be. A pedigree made up of fine 

 animals, and only when so composed, may be 

 regarded as a guaranty of individual excel- 

 lence in the animal to which it belongs. 



In the beginning, no doubt, only the descent 

 of animals sprung from superior ancestry was 

 preserved. But even in the case of these the 

 descendants have not always maintained their 



