(j34 IMPROVEMENT OF AGRICULTURAL HORSES. 
How long such artificial requirements 'would resist tlie influ¬ 
ence of a reversion to natural conditions^ citlier sudden or 
grad'll d, notliing but experiment can decide; but it is never¬ 
theless interesting to speculate upon the time during which 
our sporting dogs—pointers, for example—would retain their 
peculiar instincts, if compelled to resume their free state and 
seek their own prey. Their carefully cultivated faculty might 
render them valuable allies to their less scrupulous compa¬ 
nions; but by themselves they might be expected to starve 
in the exercise of their accomplishments, unless, as is pro¬ 
bable, the instinct of preservation might tempt them to vio¬ 
late the instinct of their artificial nature, and save themselves 
at the expense of their edueation, by appropriating the game 
they had been taught to indicate with such wonderful perti¬ 
nacity and forbearance. 
Giving fair prominence to the evidence that has been 
advaneed, we venture, therefore, to suggest, in place of the 
exceptional position contained in the aphorism ^Mike pro¬ 
duces like,^’ the more aecurate if less cerncise proposition 
that the cultivation and development of faculties and qualifi¬ 
cations, mental and physical, depend upon the influence of 
numerous conditions, including the possession of the desired 
qualities in some degree by the parents; and the subsequent 
exposure of the progeny to those conditions of existence 
whieh are likely to assist in the development of such quali¬ 
ties;-and, as a matter of the last importance, the removal of 
all those circumstances which would be likely to exert an 
antagonistic influence. 
This proposition is capable of indefinite amplification, but 
a simple illustration will suffice to render it practically clear. 
Suppose it to be an object to produce a race of cart-horses 
with legs free from the long, coarse hair characteristic of the 
heavier breeds. In prosecuting this intention, animals with 
the finest limbs would be first sought for as parents. The 
progeny would in all likelihood show very little improve¬ 
ment; and if allowed to remain untended, exposed to wet 
and dirt, in short, treated as sueh horses usually are, it is 
quite certain that an abundance of coarse hair and a thick 
integument over those portions of the extremities most 
affected by these causes would be the result. On the con¬ 
trary, supposing the young animals to be carefully preserved 
from objectionable influences, their extremities kept dry and 
clean, the long, coarse hair constantly and systematically 
pulled out in the ordinary way of grooming (by dipping the 
fingers in powdered resin, which gives an adhesiveness that 
facilitates the removal of the hair without inflicting any pain. 
