34 A STUDY OF FARM ANIMALS 



it is true that domestic animals are adaptable, the different 

 breeds are not equally so. Some, as, for example, the 

 Shorthorn, seem to thrive under a wide range of conditions. 

 Others are much less suited to change. Large, heavy ani- 

 mals are better adapted to the lower -lying lands and richer 

 pastures; while the Ughter, smaller type thrives in the hill 

 country, where heritage is not so abundant. There are cases 

 where men have persistently held to a breed under adverse 

 conditions, and have selected until an adjustment was 

 reached between the animal and the climate and the breeder. 



Brown says that one of the great triumphs achieved by 

 the husbandman, with the aid of selection, has been in stock- 

 ing the "great thirst land of central Austraha" with Merino 

 sheep. When first taken to that country, they deteriorated 

 greatly. The wool was reduced to less than half the original 

 length, and became dry, very brittle, and open. Many 

 sheep farmers gave up the attempt to produce the Merino as 

 hopeless, but others persevered, and finally succeeded in 

 producing sheep with fine forms and splendid fleeces. If 

 one will carefully study breed distribution in America, it will 

 be found that in some localities certain breeds are selected 

 in preference to all others. For illustration, in the southern 

 states Jersey cattle and Berkshire hogs are kept in preference 

 to all other breeds. In warm climates a dark-skinned ani- 

 mal suffers from the heat less, and consequently hogs and 

 cattle with dark skins prevail. Wisdom would justify no 

 other policy of selection. 



Feeding must also be recognized as an important 

 factor in hereditary transmission. It is amply demonstrated 

 that animals transferred from conditions of food scarcity to 

 an environment of abundance through successive genera- 

 tions take on an increase in size. The Shetland pony on its 

 native isles, subject to cold and more or less starvation, is a 

 smaller, more inferior animal than that of the same ancestry, 

 but which has passed through several generations in the 



