264 CATTLE-BREEDING. 



horns. Each sort has its admirers and its 

 champions. In choosing our herd would we 

 take in such animals without regard to any- 

 thing but that all had merit and were good 

 beasts? This is quite an important point, and 

 worth something more than a cursory inquiry. 

 The real question put to us is: Is it desira- 

 ble to have a special model, or is it rather 

 preferable to breed in a general way for beef 

 cattle, or for milk production, and so on? f Now 

 it is clear that among beef cattle there are 

 many types. In some there is more substance, 

 but often with coarser bone and more offal than 

 in others. Some are fine in bone, gay, and 

 stylish, but show a less vigorous constitution; 

 and so on. In dairy cattle some animals pro- 

 duce large quantities of milk, but of an inferior 

 quality; others produce milk of singular rich- 

 ness in butter fats. Are all these varieties to 

 be mixed and mingled without regard to their 

 peculiarities? Suppose we have such a lot of 

 cows, the question is not far away what sort of 

 bull are we going to use on them? The bull 

 which will produce good results when crossed 

 on one will just as likely as not fail on another 

 -fail to "nick," as the saying is. This thing 

 of a "nick," or a successful cross, is as difficult 

 as determining beforehand how much an ani- 

 mal will inherit from one or the other of its 

 parents. It is not the same thing, though at 



