fragilis, having
thinner shells to the seeds or kernels. Neither of these varieties is
in this country, so far as we are aware. There are various synonyms
for P. pinea, the chief being P. sativa of Bauhin, P. aracanensis
of Knight, P. domestica, P. chinensis of Knight, and P. tarentina of
Manetti.--_The Garden._

* * * * *

THE ART OF BREEDING.

From a paper read by C. M. Winslow, Brandon, Vt., before the Ayrshire
Breeders, at their annual meeting, in Boston, Feb. 4, 1885:

Sometimes we meet with breeders whose only aim in their stock seem to
be to produce animals that shall be entitled to registry. To such I
have little to say, as their work is comparatively easy, and has but
few hindrances to success; but to those breeders who are possessed of
an ideal type of perfection, which they are striving to impress upon
their stock, I have a few words to say upon the hindrances they may
find in the way of satisfactory results. It is a law of nature that
the offspring resembles some one or more of its ancestors, not only in
the outward appearance, but in the construction of the vital organism
and mental peculiarities, and is simply a reproduction, with the
accidental or intentional additions that from time to time are
accumulating as the stock passes through the hands of more or less
skillful breeders.

The aim of the breeder is to not only produce an animal which shall
in its own person possess the highest type of excellence sought, but
shall have the power to transmit to its offspring those qualities
of value possessed by himself. A breeder may, by chance, produce a
superior animal, or it may be the result of carefully laid plans and
artfully controlling the forces of nature and subjecting them to his
will.

It is comparatively easy to accidentally produce an animal of value,
but to steadily breed to one type is the test of the skill of the
breeder and the value of his stock. However well he may lay his plans,
or however desirable his stock may appear, his ability to perpetuate
their desirable qualities will depend upon the prepotence of the
animals, and this prepotence depends, to a great extent, upon the
length of the line in which the stock has been bred with one definite
end in view. A man may, in his efforts to breed stock excelling in a
certain line, produce stock that shows excellence in other qualities,
but this will not compensate for a deficiency in the qualification h