JUDGING FARM ANIMALS. 



PART I— FORM AND FUNCTION. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE STUDY OF FORM AND FUNCTION. 



The relationship of form to use in the animal is quite 

 apparent to the person of observant mind. Scientists uni- 

 versally recognize that wild animals are so constructed as 

 to be best adapted to the special environment in which 

 they are usually found. Our domestic animals are all 

 descended from the wild forms, by a process of evolution 

 that has taken place during many centuries. Each great 

 class or group, such as horses or cattle, for example, 

 subjected to domestication and the influences of man, has 

 gradually passed through important changes in form, 

 thereby better fitting the individual to the special uses of 

 man. The animal body is to a degree plastic and subject 

 to variation, and thus it is that largely through a process 

 of artificial selection and environment, we have such highly 

 developed examples of different types of farm animals. 

 This tendency of domestic animals to vary somewhat from 

 the parent type, has long been a subject of special study 

 by men interested in evolution and improvement. In fact 

 the constructive breeder has ever recognized that domestic 

 animals are stibject to variation and improvement, and so 

 has sought, through successive generations, to produce re- 

 sults that should show the greatest perfection. Not only 

 may the animal form as a whole be classified in type, but 



