EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENT

Shannon News, 18 November 1924, Page 4

EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENT

Environment may be taken as demoting the surroundings among which .an afimal lives. The more an animal is able to its surroundings, says a writer in me Launcestin . Weekly News, tnf p inor« chance it has of and leaving desirable descendants. Nature's law is the survival of the fittest, but as man has interfered in nature's realm it behoves him to take note and not lg-noie the beauties of nature. . The qualities desirable in the struggle for existence in wild life may teach breeders something. Improvement in breeding comes about by breeding animals that are able to give better returns for better conditions. They are not required or expected > withstand severe- deprivations. They are not expected to exist on next to nothing. All improved breeds have been raised to a"n artificial standard, and t is absolutely necessary for the best business success to provide each growing animal with generous feeding and care needed for the full development of the valued characters with which t is by reason of its good breediing endowed. A well-bred a"aimal cannot give satisfaction under primitive conditions of living; they must at least be as«good as those, enjoyed by the selected and superior, familieis from which ts parents were chosen. It is only reasonable to assume that well-bred Jamilies of animals have enjoyed a good environment—that is to say, they have been sheltered and generally properly managed, so tthat 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 which their ancestors were generally accustomed; must feed, shelter and generally manage them as i well or even better. ] It is certain that inherited charac- | ters, no matter how valuable, cannot develop if the life conditions as to render t,heir 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 Pres-ent-day animals are largely the product of an artificial environment would do much (says a Home paper) to counteract a great deal of injurious treatment, which is based on the assumption that what is natural must necessarily be best. ' We know-that all improved breeds have a, pendency to revert to the inferior types from which they originated,, unless their environment andi mating ,be such that will favour the , perpetuation of the improved type, and it is worthy of notice that tht actual alteration in the form of the offspring due to changed conditions of living is not in proportion to the apparent measure of the alteration, i This;fact emphasised the necessity of providing the best environment possble, since a slightly adverse change n management may result in a larger loss of quality. There is no fixed ..environment best for all}animals, and, though we cannot afford to. ignore the .knowledge gathered by experienced breeders, ultimate success in the main will depend on the soundness of our own judgment. The better we do for our stock the better they wll do for us.