188 



SELECTION. 



Chap. XX. 



wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury, begging for the loan 

 of any choice stallion, and promising its return at the end of 

 the season.^-^ There are numerous records at ancient periods 

 in English history of the importation of choice animals of 

 vaiious kinds, and of foolish laws against their exportation. 

 In the reigns of Henry VII. and VIII. it was ordered that 

 the magistrates, at Michaelmas, should scour the heaths and 

 commons, and destroy all mares beneath a certain size."*^ 

 Some of our earlier kings passed laws against the slaughter- 

 ing rams of any good breed before they were seven years old, 

 so that they might have time to breed. In Spain Cardinal 

 Ximenes issued, in 1509, regulations on the selection of good 

 rams for breeding.^^ 



The Emperor Akbar Khan before the year 1600 is said to 

 have " wonderfully improved " his pigeons by crossing the 

 breeds ; and this necessarilj^ implies careful selection. About 

 the same period the Dutch attended with the greatest care 

 to the breeding of these birds. Belon in 1555 says that good 

 managers in France examined the colour of their goslings in 

 order to get geese of a white colour and better kinds. Mark- 

 ham in 1631 tells the breeder "to elect the largest and good- 

 liest conies," and enters into minute details. Even with 

 respect to seeds of plants for the flower-garden. Sir J. Hanmer 

 writing about the year 1660*^ says, in "choosing seed, the 

 best seed is the most weighty, and is had from the lustiest 

 and most vigorous stems ; " and he then gives rules about 

 leaving only a few flowers on plants for seed ; so that even 

 such details were attended to in our flower-gardens two 

 hundred years ago. In order to show that selection has been 

 silently carried on in places where it would not have been 

 expected, I may add that in the middle of the last century, 

 in a remote part of North America, Mr. Cooper improved by 

 careful selection all his vegetables, " so that they were greatly 

 " superior to those of any other person. When his radishes, 



« Michel, ' Des Haras,' p. 90. 



** Mr. Baker, 'History of the 

 Horse,' ' Veterinary,' vol. xiii. p. 423. 



** M. I'Abbe Carlier, in ' Journal 

 de Physique,' vol. xxiv,, 1784, p. 181 ; 

 this memoir contains much informa- 



tion on the ancient selection of sheep ; 

 and is my authority for rams not 

 being killed young in England. 



"« 'Gardener's Chronicle,' 184 3, p, 

 389. 



