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?