DEGENERATION OF ANIMALS. H 



the results of past experience as observed by tlie older boys, a 

 rule was adopted among us that the doe should not be put to the 

 buck until she had attained full maturity. The reason assigned for 

 this rule was, 'Early breeding prevented the doe from growing.' 

 The facts were evident, still we knew not the why nor wherefore, 

 but acted on the spur of experience." Physiologists have assigned 

 the above as the true cause, and have in their writings pointed 

 out the woeful results which often follow a too early use of the 

 purely animal functions and organs. Among the higher orders 

 the same law holds good — in fact there can be no deviation from it 

 without incurring the hazard of paying the penalty. 



Dr. George B. Loring says : " There is no doubt that the use of 

 young males in breeding in New England, has been injurious to 

 our stock ; I mean so far as size and condition are concerned. 

 You must remember that the bull has always been an outcast. A 

 bull about a farm has generally been considered a nuisance. He 

 does not give any milk, he does not make any beef, neither does 

 he do any work ; but is a sort of scullion on a place. He is a 

 bull, and that is enough to damn him, and the quicker he serves 

 his cows and gets out of the world, the better everybody is 

 pleased. That has been the feeling with regard to breeding 

 animals, among the the great majority of New England farmers. 



Where the art of breeding has been applied wholly to the 

 purposes of producing beef, and the animal has been fed liberally 

 for that purpose, a young male has managed to do his work 

 decently, and possibly, with fair and moderate usage, to keep 

 himself along in good condition. That can be done ; but the best 

 Short Horn breeders in England will test what the stock may be, 

 and then wait until the animal becomes more mature before they 

 use him to any considerable extent. But there is a class of breed- 

 ing where all the functions are to be developed for a prior purpose ; 

 where in order to secure the object in view, the constitution of the 

 female must be entirely developed, and that is in the production 

 of dairy cattle in Scotland. There the farmer pursues an entirely 

 different course. The Scotch farmer endeavors to raise a hardy 

 animal for the purposes of the dairy, and knowing that the wear 

 and tear upon his cow when she goes to work, is to be as great 

 as that upon himself when he goes to work, and if she gives from 

 fifteen to twenty quarts of milk a day during the. milking season, 

 she is making a draft upon the system which nothing but the best 

 constitution can endure. He never uses his bull until he is three 



