Page:The Effect of Research in Genetics on the Art of Breeding (1912).djvu/9

Rh segregate as pure units following hybridization.

Our different breeds of dairy animals are maintained in a state of high productivity by continuous selection. Cows are followed carefully with reference to their milk-producing capacity and their ability to transmit this quality to their offspring. The ability of bulls to beget high milk-producing daughters is taken as a test of their value. There can be no doubt, the speaker believes, that this selection within the breed maintains the breed in a state of high efficiency and is absolutely necessary to the success of dairying. Strictly speaking, in the course of this selection, however, no new type has been produced. It is well recognized that the continuous selection is necessary to the maintenance of high milk-producing capacity, and if the selection were discontinued the average milk production of any dairy herd would rapidly decline until it reached the normal mean for the breed concerned. The same can not be said, however, of the breed or race characters, that is, those characters which distinguish the breeds or races from other breeds. Selection is not necessary to maintain the general characters of the Holstein breed for, as long as it is not crossed with other breeds, it will in general maintain its characters so far as color, conformation, and dairy type are concerned. The same may be said of any of our breeds of cattle and horses. The high efficiency of our race horses is maintained by the most careful selection and yet probably in most cases no distinctly new character is added, which would maintain itself as a unit character in inheritance.

It is true that we are dealing here with complex phenomena and limited exact experimentation, and a distinct mutant in the direction of high efficiency might occur at any time and be chosen for breeding which would maintain itself without continuous selection.

It is interesting at this point to recall one of the most common differences between plant and animal breeding which is seldom clearly recognized by practical breeders. Plant breeders most commonly strive to produce new races or breeds with distinctive characters which will reproduce their desirable qualities without continuous selection; while animal breeders almost wholly limit their attention to selection within the breeds already established, to maintain them in the highest state of efficiency possible. The failure to understand this difference in purpose has frequently led to confusion in our discussions.

It is beyond the scope of this paper to discuss the kinds of variation used in these different types of selection, even if we possessed the requisite knowledge, which is doubtful. The speaker may be pardoned, however, for digressing far enough to state that it is his conviction that there is no very hard and fast line between that variation which is in considerable degree inherited, such as is found frequently in high milk-producing cows in selection within the breed, and the mutation which gives absolute inheritance and establishes a permanent new mode. The great difficulty in determining whether there is any true cumulative action of selection which will extend a character beyond the limits of the race or species is met in determining what are and what are not mutations. My experience has led me to conclude that the continuous selection of maximum fluctuations in a certain direction may in some cases lead to the gradual strengthening of the character until finally it may become, more or less suddenly, fully heritable and it would then be recognized as a mutation.

In many cases we find exceedingly small differences maintaining themselves genera-