d specially
adapted for the dairy may be established. It is just by this mode that
the Ayrshires have, within the past century, been brought to be what
they are--a breed giving more good milk upon a certain amount of food
than any other.

[Illustration: READY FOR ACTION.]

It is a fact too well established to be controverted, that the first
male produces impressions upon subsequent progeny by other males. To
what extent this principle holds, it is impossible to say. Although the
instances in which it is known to be of a very marked and obvious
character may be comparatively few, yet there is ample reason to
believe that, although in a majority of cases the effect may be less
noticeable, it is not less real; and it therefore demands the special
attention of breeders. The knowledge of this law furnishes a clue to the
cause of many of the disappointments of which practical breeders often
complain, and of many variations otherwise unaccountable, and it
suggests particular caution as to the first male employed in the
coupling of animals--a matter which has often been deemed of little
consequence in regard to cattle, inasmuch as fewer heifers' first calves
are reared, than those are which are borne subsequently.

The phenomenon--or law, as it is sometimes called--of atavism, or
_ancestral influence_, is one of considerable practical importance, and
well deserves the careful attention of the breeder of farm stock.

Every one is aware that it is by no means unusual for a child to
resemble its grandfather, or grandmother, or even some ancestor still
more remote, more than it does either its own father or mother. The same
occurrence is found among our domestic animals, and oftener in
proportion as the breeds are crossed or mixed up. Among our common stock
of neat cattle, or natives--originating, as they did, from animals
brought from England, Scotland, Denmark, France, and Spain, each
possessing different characteristics of form, color, and use, and bred,
as our common stock has usually been, indiscriminately together, with no
special object in view, with no attempt to obtain any particular type or
form, or to secure adaptation for any particular purpose--frequent
opportunities are afforded of witnessing the results of this law of
hereditary transmission. So common, indeed, is its occurrence, that the
remark is often made, that, however good a cow may be, there is no
telling beforehand what sort of a calf she may have. The fa