THE PECULIARITIES OF BREED. 



animal had by accident, or otherwise, lost its bee-f-producing char- 

 acteristics regardless of the colour of their hair or the peculiar twist 

 of their horns. The belief was that "from unions based upon this 

 principle," whether in the breeding of cattle or horses, "the selec- 

 tion being guided by a skilful judgment and a discriminating tact, 

 we may expect progeny possessing not only a fitting and symmet- 

 rical development of the locomotive system, but also an amount and 

 intensity of nervous energy and power unattainable by any other 

 methods. Thus, with the antagonistic doctrine held by the rival 

 advocates of crossing and pure breeding, the dairy world has gained 

 much knowledge since the introduction of the pedigreed Shorthorns 

 and Devons in the dairyherds of the coast and tableland districts 

 of New South Wales. 



The writer saw much of the pure bred Shorthorns and Devons 

 introduced in the late seventies, and, with few exceptions, they (.id 

 not appear to have been selected by dairymen possessed *of know>- 

 ledge of any special system or method of breeding, and, judging by 

 the results obtained by most of those who did profess to have such 

 knowledge, they must have met with many disappointments. Of 

 course, the public heard little or nothng of these disappointments, 

 whilst the successes, however few, were proclaimed daily from the 

 house-top. 



223 



