270 CATTLE-BREEDING. 



nature, pure and simple. Many more of us are 

 possessed of capacity to act, and to act wisely, 

 than to reason out the why and wherefore of 

 such activity on our part. Those who claim to 

 be mere common-sense breeders are the very 

 ones most apt to have decided views as to what 

 is a good animal, and most likely to be utterly 

 opposed to having any other sort in their herds. 

 If they, therefore, work along for years with 

 the same lot of cattle it almost always happens 

 that at the end of their breeding they have 

 stamped their stock indellibly with the mark of 

 their personal preference. 



But some, especially young beginners, have 

 little or no such preconceived ideas and no 

 definite theory. For them the only safe course 

 is to select as nearly as they are able a uniform 

 general type, securing as high a degree of per- 

 sonal merit as may be possible. Almost every 

 one will find a certain ingrained taste which 

 will guide him, and he will need to satisfy that 

 at the very outset ; and it is of great value to 

 every young man, in whatever walk of life, that 

 his taste be formed on the best models. If one 

 begins by forming his taste on a scrub model 

 almost any thoroughbred will seem a miracle 

 of art to him; while to another who begins 

 with the best of thoroughbred breeds the 

 other's wonder will be perhaps a sorry and very 

 undesirable beast. Before any effort at fixing 



