18 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



grade Durham, or Hereford to get size, and a little Ayr- 

 shire for milk, and a little Devon for color, and so on, 

 using perhaps dams sired by a bull in the neighborhood 

 which had also got some " Whitten"* or " Peter 

 Waldo" calves, (though none of these showed it,) at 

 any rate he wanted some of the " native" element in 

 his stock, because it was tough, and some folks thought 

 natives were the best after all. Among its ancestors 

 and kindred were some good and some not good, some 

 large and some small, some well favored and fat, some 

 ill favored and lean, some profitable and some profitless. 

 The animal now offered is a great deal better than the 

 average of them. It looks for aught they can see, about 

 as well as the one for which five times his price is 

 asked. Perhaps he served forty cows last year and 

 brought his owner as many quarters, while the other 

 only served five and brought an income of but five dol- 

 lars. The question arises, which is the better bargain? 

 After pondering the matter, one buys the low-priced 

 and the other the high-priced one, both being well sat- 

 isfied in their own minds. 



What did results show ? The low-priced one served 



that season perhaps a hundred cows ; more than ought 



to have done so, came a second time ; — having been 



overtasked as a yearling, he lacked somewhat of vigor. 



* Local names for lyery^ or black flcslied cattle. 



