SELECTION OF BREEDING ANIMALS. 267 



and often almost opposite, types. How much 

 more pleasing to the eye than such a group 

 would be one such as we often see exhibited 

 as the get of a single bull very even and of 

 singularly striking resemblance. If we are so 

 blind as not to see the superior excellence of 

 the best of other types to many, even most, of 

 our favorite sort, we are in sad need of a visual 

 cathartic. We ought always to recognize the 

 good in other kinds, but it is very nearly cer- 

 tain that any breeder will achieve better re- 

 sults by taking ten or a dozen animals of one 

 general type than by picking up helter skelter 

 as many of the best animals as he can find 

 without any special regard to each other. 



All great breeders have had some ideal to 

 which they have aimed to attain. That ideal 

 was perhaps never illustrated in any single 

 animal in their herd. Their herds gradually 

 grew toward this ideal, and the average of the 

 best of their cattle would perhaps more nearly 

 represent it than any single animal. One 

 would have the loin, another the crops and 

 chine, yet another the brisket and shoulders of 

 the desired beast; but no matchless queen would 

 show from tip of horn to tail the noble symme- 

 try that the breeder had made his dream all 

 his days. In the herd of such an one we may 

 therefore not unnaturally look for such varia- 

 tions as would seem under a wise and careful 



