When further improved by the same slow and gradual process, they will spread more widely, and will be recognised as something distinct and valuable, and will then probably first receive a provincial name.
In semi-civilised countries, with little free communication, the spreading of a new sub-breed will be a slow process.
As soon as the points of value are once acknowledged, the principle, as I have called it, of unconscious selection will always tend--perhaps more at one period than at another, as the breed rises or falls in fashion--perhaps more in one district than in another, according to the state of civilisation of the inhabitants--slowly to add to the characteristic features of the breed, whatever they may be.