THE FARM.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4666, 25 February 1924, Page 4

THE FARM.

ENVIRONMENT ON LIVE STOCK.

Environment may be taken as denoting the surroundings amongst which an animal lives. The more perfectly an animal is able to adapt itself to its surroundings the more chance it has of surviving and of leaving desirable descendants. Nature s law is the survival of the fittest, but this is not necessarily man's point ot view, and the qualities necessary for the struggle for existence .11 wild life are entirely different from those demanded by breeders.

Improvement in breeding comes about by producing animals that are able io give better returns for better conditions. They are not lequired or expected to withstand severe privations. They are not expected to exist on next to nothing. All improve I breeds have been raised to an artificial standard, and it is absolutely necessary for the best business success to provide each growing animal with the generous feeding and care needed for the full development of the valued characters with which it is by reason of its good breeding endowed. A well-bred animal cannot give satisfaction under primitive conditions of living ; they must, at least, be as good as those enjoyed by the selected and superior families from which its parents were chosen. It is only reasonable to assume that well-bred families of animals have enjoyed a good environment ; that is, to say, they have been well sheltered and, generally, properly managed, so that if we wish their offspring to follow the hereditary tendency and maintain the prestige of the family we must provide the same conditions of life to whicn their ancestors were accustomed; must feed, shelter, and generally manage them as well, or even better. It is certain that inherited character, no matter how valuable, cannot develop if the life conditions of the animal are so unfavourable as to render their development impossible, and the influence of good conditions of living is just as important as the animal’s ancestral heritage.

A frank acceptance of the fact that our present-day animals are largely the product of an artificial environment would dp much to counteract a great deal of injudicious treatment, which is based on tlr assumption that what is natural must necessarily be best. ’

We know that all improved breeds have a tendency to revert to the inferior types from which they originated, unless their environment and mating be such as will favour the perpetuation of the improved type, and it is worthy of notice that the actual alteration in ■ the form of the offspring due to changed conditions 1 of living is not in proportion to the apparent measure of the alteration. This fact emphasises the necessity of providing the best environment possible, since a slight adverse change in management may result in a larger loss of quality. There is no one fixed environment best for all animals ; and, thcugh w r e cannot afford to ignore the knowledge gathered by experienced breeders, ultimate success in the main will depend on the soundness of our bwn judgment. The better we do for our stock the better they will do for us.