BREEDING AND SELECTION 33 



of tlie animal in question, and we believe that the ancestors 

 of an individual have an influence in determining the char- 

 acter of the progeny of the individual. Therefore, if we find 

 in the pedigree of a certain animal the names of a considerable 

 number of animals known to possess a high degree of merit, 

 and if the animal under consideration is a reasonably good 

 representative of the breed, we would feel fairly safe in breed- 

 ing from such an individual. We would say that such an 

 animal had a ;good pedigree, because it comes of a good line 

 of ancestors. If, however, we found an animal that was quite 

 satisfactory as an individual, but the pedigree showed us names 

 of ancestors which we knew possessed very undesirable qual- 

 ities, we would hesitate to select such an animal to put into 

 our herd, especially if it were a boar, because we would be 

 afraid that some of those undesirable qualities might crop out 

 in the progeny and be spread throughout the whole herd. 

 We might even go so far as to select a boar not quite equal as 

 an individual to the one just described, but possessing a good 

 pedigree. 



It would not be advisable, however, to breed from a really 

 bad individual merely because he had a good pedigree, because 

 there are many animals with good pedigrees which should 

 never be used for breeding. It is just here that experience 

 is necessary to enable a breeder to hold the balance properly 

 between individuality and pedigree. 



It may be added that a tabulated pedigree means nothing 

 to the man who does not know anything about the animals 

 whose names appear therein, and the man who would become 

 a breeder must make it his business to familiarize himself 

 with the great sires and families which have attained to 

 eminence in the breed he is handling. It must be remembered, 

 also, that the immediate ancestors, such as the sire, dam, grand- 

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