•132 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



legs, are desirable. If he desire oxen for labor, activity and 

 nervous energy arc better qualifications than indolence and 

 fat, and so he' seeks for somewhat larger brain and lungs, in 

 order that they may be furnished. If dairy cattle be the object, 

 other points are made secondary to the development of milking 

 properties. 



Efforts aimed at improvement, to be permanently successful, 

 should not only be carried on with judicious skill and care, but 

 should be long continued, and while it is not doubted that our 

 native stock contains as good material, with which to commence 

 the race of improvement, and in respect of thorough acclima- 

 tion, even better, than any elsewhere to be found, it may yet be 

 true policy to avail ourselves of w^hat has been already accom- 

 plished by eminent breeders, who have devoted to the subject 

 undivided attention, and made it the study and business of their 

 lives ; and which has resulted in the production of "Short Horns," 

 '•'Devons," " Herefords," "Jerseys," etc. It is also said in 

 favor of these new breeds, so called, that their peculiar traits 

 are so fixecl^ or their blood so predominant, as to exercise a 

 controlling influence, when crossed with natives or mongrels, 

 possessing no such fixed traits, or any peculiar " blood." To 

 illustrate, while a cross of two of the fixed breeds, might result 

 in offspring partaking nearly alike of both, in a cross of one of the 

 fixed breeds with natives or such as possess no peculiar blood 

 of any sort, but rather a random mixture, the fixed blood so 

 controls the progeny, that it is found to be, not merely a " half 

 blood," but to be strongly marked as more than half like the 

 blood parent. More especially is this the case, where the blood 

 parent be the male, as it is usually admitted that the male has 

 greater influence in determining the characteristics of the oft'- 

 spring, than the female. If this claim be well founded, it follows 

 that improvement will the more rapidly follow the introduction 

 of thoroughbred bulls, to cross with our native stock. 



The relative influence of the male and female parent upon 

 the progen}', is yet a matter which can hardly be considered as 

 definitely settled. "Whatever the rule may be, exceptions to it 

 are not unfrequent. The opinions of the most sk'llful breeders 

 favors the conclusion, that so far as regards size, external form, 

 muscular development and general appearance, the influence of 



