SELECTION OF BREEDING ANIMALS. 283 



we very often can, and it is certainly worth the 

 trial. 



As the animal is to be used for breeding his 

 power of transmitting to his descendants his 

 own qualities becomes of the highest impor- 

 tance, and as that depends largely not only on 

 his physical vigor but on his breeding also, we 

 must consider the excellence of pedigree next 

 in order. By excellence of pedigree I would in- 

 dicate the greatest number of ancestors of the 

 highest order of merit. The bull should not 

 want here. The more animals of high quality 

 from which he can trace his descent and the 

 nearer they are to the top of the pedigree the 

 greater is likely to be the bull's capacity for re- 

 producing his inherited excellence. If this be 

 not so then the whole idea of pedigree is a de- 

 lusion and a snare. Pick your animal to breed 

 from, then, not simply for his own merit, but 

 look to see where he got that merit, whether 

 from sire or dam or both, or from some more 

 remote ancestor, and among rival claimants for 

 favor choose the one whose sire and dam show 

 most merit. This has a two-fold significance. 

 In the first place, under the simple law of in- 

 heritance we have the rule that "like produces 

 like," and the longer the type has been fixed 

 that is the larger the number of ancestors 

 conforming to a given standard the stron- 

 ger and more invariable is this rule. Not only 



