his own
stock. He will trace the connection of certain good qualities and
certain bad ones, with an almost invariable peculiarity of shape and
structure; and at length he will arrive at a clear conception, not so
much of beauty of form (although that is a pleasing object to
contemplate) as of that outline and proportion of parts with which
_utility_ is oftenest combined. Then carefully viewing his stock he
will consider where they approach to, and how far they wander from,
this utility of form; and he will be anxious to preserve or to
increase the one and to supply the deficiency of the other. He will
endeavor to select from his own stock those animals that excel in the
most valuable points, and particularly those which possess the
greatest number of these points, and he will unhesitatingly condemn
every beast that manifests deficiency in any one important point. He
will not, however, too long confine himself to his own stock, unless
it be a very numerous one. The breeding from close affinities has many
advantages to a certain extent. It was the source whence sprung the
cattle and sheep of Bakewell and the superior cattle of Colling; and
to it must also be traced the speedy degeneracy, the absolute
disappearance of the New Leicester cattle, and, in the hands of many
agriculturists, the impairment of constitution and decreased value of
the New Leicester sheep and of the Short-horns. He will therefore seek
some change in his stock every second or third year, and that change
is most conveniently effected by introducing a new bull. This bull
should be of the same breed, and pure, coming from a similar pasturage
and climate, but possessing no relationship--or, at most, a very
distant one--to the stock to which he is introduced. He should bring
with him every good point which the breeder has labored to produce in
his stock, and if possible, some improvement, and especially in the
points where the old stock may have been somewhat deficient, and most
certainly he should have no manifest defect of form; and that most
essential of all qualifications, a hardy constitution, should not be
wanting.

There is one circumstance, however, which the breeder occasionally
forgets, but which is of as much importance to the permanent value of
his stock as any careful selection of animals can be--and that is,
good keeping. It has been well said that all good stock must be both
bred with attention and well fed. It is necessary that these two