286 CATTLE-BREEDING. 



the evil likeness of a deeply prepotent family 

 with which they had been crossed. And as this 

 inheritance extends to all things of form, of 

 organ, of function, of health and of disease, how 

 anxious should be the attention given to all 

 these things. It looks almost as if the risk of 

 a bad result was so great from an inferior but 

 prepotent bull that it would be almost better 

 policy to keep strictly to bulls of little or no 

 prepotency, leaving it to each individual cow 

 to determine the chief characteristics of her 

 progeny. On the other hand, think of the trans- 

 formation sure to be effected by a great sire of 

 sturdy powers. The impress of such bulls as 

 Goldfinder, the old Duke of Airdrie, and Musca- 

 tooii not only glorified the individual herds to 

 which they belonged, but marked the local 

 herds and even spread widely in the whole 

 state and country. 



It is evident, then, that sturdy constitutions 

 are specially to be desired and the least symp- 

 toms of disease, or even feebleness of physique 

 in the smallest matters, are to be stringently 

 avoided. For in all breeding animals there is 

 no consideration at all comparable to entire 

 healthiness. 



We must now notice further the relation of 

 the pedigree to the artificial standard. What 

 we have seen to apply to all in a general way 

 applies to the herd bull in tenfold greater force. 



