284 CATTLE-BREEDING. 



so, but in the second place a long fixed type of 

 this sort exhibits a prepotent power over a less 

 fixed type. Thus we saw that a highly-bred 

 bull when bred to a scrub would almost surely 

 govern and determine the nature of the pro- 

 duce. This is the extreme case; the variations 

 are infinite to the point in which two equally 

 well fixed types meet on an equal footing. 

 Among these intermediate instances lie all those 

 many cases in which a poorly-kept-up family 

 yields to the greater vigor of a more vigorous 

 family. Thus often in actual practice we find 

 families bred for generations only for the pur- 

 pose of keeping up some fancy theory of breed- 

 ing whose paper results alone are definite, the 

 animals meantime undergoing all kinds of vicis- 

 situdes. After a time they are crossed with a 

 vigorous family bred only for individual merit 

 and maintaining it and force of character gene- 

 ration after generation. At once a transforma- 

 tion results. The cross proves prepotent; the 

 poor, abused, disorganized stocks yield to the 

 spell of fresh and unpolluted blood and at once 

 produce far better offspring than themselves 

 or than their ancestors for generations. It is 

 the final result of oft-repeated reproduction of a 

 combination of qualities which gives prepotency, 

 and prepotency is the greatest of possessions for 

 a stock bull. 

 Nor do I speak rashly, when I claim for ex- 



