SELECTION OF BREEDING ANIMALS. 265 



first sight it might seem to be. It is simply 

 how will the two parents interfuse ? Both might 

 be excellent and transmit good qualities to their 

 common offspring, but the produce ' might fail 

 in that great essential of evenness, or balance. 

 We want an animal to be "well balanced" 

 throughout; not to be phenomenally good in 

 one point and miserably bad in another. So 

 this question of "nicking" becomes important, 

 and we cannot say that because two animals 

 are fine their offspring must needs be fine. 

 This we are not at all justified in saying. 

 Fineness is predicated of a certain balanced 

 relation of parts. Our law gives us only simi- 

 larity to parents. But can we not get a little 

 nearer to the rationale of the matter than by 

 dismissing it as a question only determinable 

 by experiment? I think that while an absolute 

 solution is out of all hope of attainment, in this 

 as in all else where Nature's laws are carefully 

 and intelligently observed, we may come to a 

 useful approximation. How shall we naturally 

 proceed toward such an approximation? 



In the first place it is easily seen that where 

 there is great diversity among cows, one bull, 

 however good, can hardly be expected to breed 

 evenly. A bull of remarkable prepotency may 

 indeed do well in such circumstances, but even 

 he would not do excellently well. If of a small, 

 compact type, he would tend to decrease the 



