68 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



CHAPTEE V. 



Eelative Influence of the Parents. 



The relative influence of the male and female parents 

 upon the characteristics of progeny has long been a 

 fertile subject of discussion among breeders. It is 

 found in experience that progeny sometimes resembles 

 one parent more than the other, — sometimes there is 

 an apparent blending of the characteristics of both, — 

 sometimes a noticeable dissimilarity to either, though 

 always more or less resemblance somewhere, and some- 

 times, the impress of one may be seen upon a portion 

 of the organization of the offspring and that of the 

 other parent upon another portion ; yet we are not au- 

 thorized from such discrepancies to conclude that it is 

 a matter of chance, for all of nature's operations are 

 conducted by fixed laws, whether we be able fully to 

 discover them or not. The same causes always pro- 

 duce the same results. In this case, not less than in 

 others there are, beyond all doubt, fixed laws, and the 

 varying results which we see are easily and suflSciently 

 accounted for by the existence of conditions or modify- 

 ing influences not fully patent to our observation. 



