424 



CONCLUDING REMARKS 



Chap. XXVIII 



stock 



It 



is improbable, if 



men were to keep p 



this manner, that they would prefer 



, , ,-, - jl — exactly the 



same characters: they won VI «<a wa V«™ ~n * t -, 



' •> VVUU ' Q 5 as A\e know, often prefer directly 



•pposite 



ffei 



and the 



This has actually 



lots 



lid ultimately come 

 ed with strains or familie 



of cattle, sheep, and pigeons, which have been long kept and 

 / " 11 " ~ XA ~ J h J Afferent breeders without any wish 



ully 



1 to 



part to form new and distinct sub-breeds 

 kind of selection will more especi 



Tl 



ith animals which are highly serviceable toman; for every 



get the be 



will transmit 

 offspring. 



less surely their 



•i 



Hardly any one is so careless as to breed fr 



their 



animals 



Even 



mpelled from extreme 



want to kill some of their animals, would destroy the 

 preserve the best. With animals kept for use and not for : 



different fashions prevail in different dist 



quently 



The 



leading to the preservation, and 

 sion, of all sorts of trifling peculiarities 

 process will have been pursued with our fruit-trees and vege- 

 tables, for the best will always have been the most largely cul- 

 tivated, and will occasionally have yielded seedlings better than 

 their parents. 



The different strains, just alluded to, which have been raised 

 by different breeders without any wish for such a result, and the 

 unintentional modification of foreign breeds in their new homes, 

 both afford excellent evidence of the power 



? 



oi unconscious 



selection. This form 



selection has probably led to far ino] 



important results than methodical selection, and is likewise more 

 important under a theoretical point of view from closely resem- 

 bling natural selection. For during this process the best or most 

 valued individuals are not separated and prevented crossing 



with others of 



same breed, but 



preserved; but this 



tably leads du 



simply prefer 



of generations to their increase in number 



that finally they prevail 



their gradual 



& 



impi 



e 



exclusion of 



parent-for 



With our domesticated animals natural selection checks 

 the production of races with any injurious deviation of struc- 



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I 



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