The Principles of Breeding

The Principles of Breeding, by S.
L. Goodale

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Title: The Principles of Breeding or, Glimpses at the Physiological
Laws involved in the Reproduction and Improvement of Domestic
Animals
Author: S. L. Goodale
Release Date: June 22, 2007 [EBook #21900]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING:
OR, GLIMPSES AT THE PHYSIOLOGICAL LAWS INVOLVED IN
THE REPRODUCTION AND IMPROVEMENT OF DOMESTIC
ANIMALS.
BY S.L. GOODALE, SECRETARY OF THE MAINE BOARD OF
AGRICULTURE.
BOSTON: CROSBY, NICHOLS, LEE AND COMPANY, 117
WASHINGTON ST. 1861.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1861, BY STEPHEN
L. GOODALE, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District
of Maine.

Press of Stevens & Sayward, Augusta, Maine.

PREFACE.

The writer has had frequent occasion to notice the want of some handy
book embodying the principles necessary to be understood in order to
secure improvement in Domestic Animals.
It has been his aim to supply this want.
In doing so he has availed himself freely of the knowledge supplied by
others, the aim being to furnish a useful, rather than an original book.
If it serve in any measure to supply the need, and to awaken greater
interest upon a matter of vital importance to the agricultural interests of
the country, the writer's purpose will be accomplished.

CONTENTS.
PAGE.
CHAPTER I.
--INTRODUCTORY, 7
II.--LAW OF SIMILARITY, 21
III.--LAW OF VARIATION, 33
IV.--ATAVISM OR ANCESTRAL INFLUENCE, 61
V.--RELATIVE INFLUENCE OF THE PARENTS, 68
VI.--LAW OF SEX, 89
VII.--IN-AND-IN BREEDING, 94
VIII.--CROSSING, 105
IX.--BREEDING IN THE LINE, 119

X.--CHARACTERISTICS OF BREEDS, 127

THE PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
The object of the husbandman, like that of men engaged in other
avocations, is profit; and like other men the farmer may expect success
proportionate to the skill, care, judgment and perseverance with which
his operations are conducted.
The better policy of farmers generally, is to make stock husbandry in
some one or more of its departments a leading aim--that is to say, while
they shape their operations according to the circumstances in which
they are situated, these should steadily embrace the conversion of a
large proportion of the crops grown into animal products,--and this
because, by so doing, they may not only secure a present livelihood,
but best maintain and increase the fertility of their lands.
The object of the stock grower is to obtain the most valuable returns
from his vegetable products. He needs, as Bakewell happily expressed
it, "the best machine for converting herbage and other animal food into
money."
He will therefore do well to seek such animals as are most perfect of
their kind--such as will pay best for the expense of procuring the
machinery, for the care and attention bestowed, and for the
consumption of raw material. The returns come in various forms. They
may or may not be connected with the ultimate value of the animal. In
the beef ox and the mutton sheep, they are so connected to a large
extent; in the dairy cow and the fine wooled sheep, this is quite a
secondary consideration;--in the horse, valued as he is for beauty, speed
and draught, it is not thought of at all.

Not only is there a wide range of field for operations, from which the
stock grower may select his own path of procedure, but there is a
demand that his attention be directed with a definite aim, and towards
an end clearly apprehended. The first question to be answered, is, what
do we want? and the next, how shall we get it?
What we want, depends wholly upon our situation and surroundings,