CHAPTER III. 

 BREEDING AND SELECTION. 



The Breeder. The business of the stock-breeder is a 

 peculiar one. He has to deal with life, and all those mys- 

 terious possibilities that exist in the living creature have to 

 be reckoned with in his operations. It is not a matter of fixed 

 rules. No man can map out a system which will apply to all 

 cases and give a definite result with absolute certainty. The 

 successful breeder requires a thorough knowledge of his busi- 

 ness and the ability to reason accurately, so that he may modify 

 his methods and adapt them to the requirements of each in- 

 dividual problem which comes before him. Knowledge of 

 general principles can be acquired from books, but the success- 

 ful application of those principles must be learned, very largely, 

 in the school of experience. 



Theory and practice must go hand in hand, and knowledge 

 must be combined with reason; but the really great breeder 

 seems to possess a sort of intuitive genius given to the very 

 few, and hence great breeders are not common. 



Another thing necessary to success is a love for animals. 

 If a man dislikes hogs, he had better not attempt to breed 

 them, because failure is sure to follow. It is the enthusiastic 

 lover of a breed of animals who will make the greatest success 

 of breeding them. 



Finally, there can be no progress unless the breeder has a 

 very clear ideal before him towards which he is working, which 

 implies, of course, that he must be a thorough judge of the 

 breed he handles. He may never reach his ideal, but he 

 must never lose sight of it. No matter how much money may 



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