ON BREEDING. I95 



2d. Regularity in feeding; no overstuffing; no scantiness of 

 allowance ; but enough, always, without waste. 



3d. Shelter, always, when needed, according to temperature 

 of climate and atmosphere; avoiding extreme cold, violent 

 storms, and excessive heats. 



4th. Kindly treatment; thus promoting docility in the ani- 

 mal; contentment of disposition, and a fearless confidence in 

 its keeper — all promotive of quietude and thrift. Dumb beasts 

 though they be, they appreciate good treatment much beyond 

 what is usually supposed, and all these are indispensable to the 

 successful efforts for the improvement, or even retention of 

 their good qualities. 



These rules for selection and treatment being duly observed, 

 some further explanations are necessary. 



Nature has certain unerring laws which must be observed; 

 and those laws cannot be violated with impunity. "Like begets 

 like." We have seen in the histories of the various breeds we 

 have named, that each one has its own peculiar and well estab- 

 lished features and characteristiurf, which are perpetuated in their 

 progeny, although not always in the same relative degrees of 

 perfection or imperfection, in which they exist in sire or dam. 



Perfection of outward form is seldom found in any domestic 

 animal. If it were, that quality would be less valuable than it 

 is usually considered, and not so eagerly sought by every breeder 

 who aims at a high standard of excellence in his stock; and 

 even when obtained, there is a constant tendency to inferiority 

 in the stock of such perfect animals, unless the most diligent 

 care is exercised by the breeder to couple him, or her, as the 

 case may be, with other animals which possess, to a certain 

 degree, his or her predominating excellencies. Much of this ten- 

 dency toward inferiority, or, toward improving excellence, will 

 depend on the depth of breeding in the parents — that is to say, 

 the long established purity of blood — in the so perfected sire and 



