JOURNAL 
OF THE 
EOYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY 
OF ENGLAND. 
I. — The Principles which regulate the Breediivj of Farm-Stock. 
By Henuy Tanner, M.R.A.C., Professor of Agriculture and 
Rural Economy, Queen's College, Birmingham. 
Prize Essay. 
The careful observer of nature has ample proof that her works 
are all carried out in accordance with fixed rules, and no one has 
better opportunities for securing this evidence than the agricul- 
turist. A modification of circumstances may cause a variation 
in the results ; still there is, throughout his experience, a thread 
of evidence which proves the existence of established laws. The 
importance of farm-stock is daily becoming more fully recog- 
nised, and truths applicable to the whole class can be traced out 
and determined most satisfactorily by attention to individual 
specimens. The variation in the feeding capabilities of different 
animals is a fact which needs not to be enlarged upon, for every 
farmer knows that whilst some animals are such good feeders 
that they pay by an increase of weight for all the food which 
they consume, others, for the purpose of fattening, would be dear 
as a gift. Assuming, then, that such a difference exists, I pro- 
pose to show and explain, as briefly as possible, the rules which 
govern the results required and the system to be followed in 
putting them in practice. 
It materially lessens our difficulty to know that in the breeding 
of all varieties of farm-stock — cattle, sheep, pigs, &c. — the 
results seem uniformly to follow the same fixed but simple laAvs. 
It is an old and approved maxim that " like produces like ;" 
but this rule, though generally true, may be misapplied, when 
the error will be demonstrated by the contradictory evidence of 
practice and experience. If an animal is capable of transmitting 
any character to its offspring, it must possess that which it 
conveys, although at times qualities may predominate in the off- 
spring which were almost latent in the parent. If, therefore, 
any quality or character is rendered hereditary, it must corre- 
VOL. XXII. B 
