THE ANGORA GOAT. 
185 
is also more or less practised. The effect of this 
obviously must be to concentrate the desired quality in 
the progeny. Suppose a case of a champion ram of 
great excellence ; he is put to a number of the best 
ewes selected out of the flock, and probably related to 
him in a more or less remote degree, his progeny, 
according to the rule of inherited qualities, are one-half 
at least of his breed. If he is again put to the ewes 
of his progeny, the lambs from these will be three- 
fourths of his breed. If this be continued to a third 
generation, the progeny would be seven-eighths of his 
breed. The chances of obtaining the desired type 
would in the last instance obviously be greatly 
increased. 
Thorough-bred or pure-bred stock are valued because 
they have a greater pre-potency or power of marking 
their likeness or the likeness of the breed upon their 
offspring, than have the best looking specimens of ordi- 
nary stock. Pure-bred animals are those that have 
descended from a long line of ancestors, carefully 
selected to one type, which has, by such continued 
selection, become the fixed type of the breed. 
In regard to the question of the various breeds of 
domestic animals and their origin, I would desire not 
to be considered as ignoring the effects of climate, food, 
and other circumstances, and those principles of natural 
selection so well illustrated by Darwin in his writings, 
and which are so potent in changing and modifying the 
different forms of animal and vegetable life, but these 
processes are slow in their effects in comparison with 
the changes man can and has effected by selection. 
The careful breeder should, however, study to have the 
natural agents on his side if possible, otherwise the 
