FIXING GOOD TRAITS 



courage, as well as capacity for rapid action of 

 the legs. These are qualities that are necessarily 

 linked with the capacity for the right kind of 

 muscular action. 



But beyond this there are very few qualities 

 upon which the breeder must insist. It does not 

 greatly matter whether the speedy animal is small 

 or large; its color is mostly a matter of entire 

 indifference ; and it is taken as a matter of course 

 that the record-breaking animal will be nervous 

 in temperament, tender as a hothouse plant, and 

 requiring such care and attention as would be 

 only wasted upon a more plebeian animal. 



In a word, the breeder of trotting-horses fixes 

 attention principally on the single quality of 

 speed. 



But it is rare indeed that the would-be 

 developer of a new plant can thus fix attention 

 upon any single quality to the disregard of other 

 qualities. On the contrary, as a rule, the plant 

 experimenter, while he may have in mind one 

 most important quality, must consider at the same 

 time six or eight or ten or a dozen other qualities 

 that are only a degree less essential. We have 

 seen this illustrated again and again, and we 

 shall have occasion to recall some of the specific 

 characters involved in the course of the present 

 discussion. 



[227] 



