128 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



the oxen proving docile and efficient laborers for a 

 while, and then turn quickly into good beef upon such 

 food as their farms will produce, the cows giving a fair 

 quantity and quality of milk for the needs of the family 

 and perhaps to furnish a little butter and cheese for 

 market. 



Before proceeding to answer the inquiry more defi- 

 nitely, it may be well to remark further, that among 

 the facts of experience regarding cattle, sheep and 

 horses, nothing is better established than that no breed 

 can be transferred from the place where it originated, 

 and to which it was suited, to another pf unlike surface, 

 climate and fertility, and retain equal adaptation to its 

 new situation, nor can it continue to be what it was 

 before. It must and will vary. The influence of cli- 

 mate alone, aside from food and other agencies in 

 causing variation, is so great that the utmost skill in 

 breeding, and care in all other respects, cannot wholly 

 control its modifying effects. 



It is also pretty well established, that no breed 

 brought in from abroad can be fully as good, other 

 things being equal, as one indigenous to the locality, or 

 what approximates the same thing, as one, which by 

 being reared through repeated generations on the spot 

 has become thoroughly acclimated ; so that the pre- 

 sumption is strongly in favor of natives. 



