438 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. {1 Jun, 1899. 
It is therefore easily understood that, so soon as such animals are removed 
from those influences which were instrumental in fixin g their types, the animals 
are likely to vary in different directions, according to the nature of the new 
conditions under which they are now living. ; 
It is also clear that ‘such variations in size, shape, colour, &c., will be 
increased so soon as the originally distinct types are no longer kept isolated, 
but allowed to merge into one another, or, in other words, the more they are 
intermixed with each other by interbreeding or by crossing. ‘ 
Breeds of animals that transfer their peculiarities to their offspring without 
variation are called “ constant races ;’ those that are subject to variations are 
variable or inconstant. / 3 
Just so constant in transmitting their qualities as are the wild animals, 
so constant is it possible to make a domestic race also, as I shall explain later on. 
Amongst the domestic animals of the present day, variability is mostly the 
result of frequent crosses in different directions, quite apart from any changes 
of locality or food, &e., although the latter are likewise powerful agencies. 
Constancy and variability are the two great factors that rule our success in 
breeding. If we wish to produce more desirable forms, our breeding material 
must have the properties of potter’s clay: it must be pliable, soft, plastic. 
That means the forms of animals which we wish to improve must yield to our 
wishes ; the qualities of male and female must amalgamate. Neither male 
nor female must persist in transmitting some less desirable qualities of some 
inferior ancestors. As soon as the desirable forms are obtained, we must 
try to fix them and accumulate them ; that means we must increase the 
tendency of the animals to produce none but the desired qualities. In this 
respect they should behave like individuals of a wild race. Variability may be 
‘compared to the water and other agencies which soften and purify the clay ; 
constancy to the fire that hardens it, and by so doing preserves the form into 
which the clay has been moulded. Naturally hard clay has to be softened 
first before it can be moulded, and after having received a new form it has then 
to be hardened again so that water cannot dissolve it again. 
When the offspring of certain animals unmistakably show the qualities of 
either the father or the mother, we say that the offspring has inherited 
and the parents have transmitted them. 
In some cases it is very difficult to tell whether the qualities which a flock 
of sheep, for instance, now possesses are the results of inheritance or of food and 
climate. 
Those of my readers who can recall the days when our sheep were shepherded 
will remember the remarkable change in the wool so soon as sheep originally 
shepherded were put into paddocks. The wool became much longer and stronger, 
I mean to say that, whilst the paddock-grown wool had suffered somewhat in 
softness and elasticity, the diameter of the fibre had become longer, the wool 
looked coarser. I remember one particular instance—viz., the C. clip. Before 
the sheep went into the paddocks it was one of the best fine clothing wool clips 
in the colony. When the first clip of the paddock-fed sheep had been sold, the 
brokers inquired why the owner had gone in for so different a class of sheep 
than those that hitherto realised the good prices. ‘The wool had grown so much 
longer and coarser on the sheep during the time of yvaddock-feeding that the 
clip appeared to come from a different stock of sheep altogether. Let us 
Suppose now that a person wished to establish a breed of long-woolled sheep, and 
he were to select from these paddock-fed animals, whose ancestors had been for 
generations backwards famed for short and fine wool, would he be likely to 
succeed in obtaining a true combing wool breed out of them, particularly if they 
were shepherded again? Certainly not. If paddock-feeding were continued, 
the sheep would probably continue to carry long-stapled fleeces, but they would 
adopt their true short wool character as soon as they were put into flocks and 
herded. 
The opposite thing might occur. I know of a ram coming from a fine- 
woolled bond fide combing wool flock of Tasmania, carrying a fleece of good 
