108 BOARD OF AGRICULTUEE. 



near affinities whenever stock-getters of the same breed and of 

 equal merit can be obtained which are not related. Yet, where 

 this is not possible, or where there is some desirable and clearly 

 defined purpose in view, as the fixing and perpetuating of some 

 valuable quality in a particular animal not common to the breed, 

 and the breeder possesses the knowledge and skill needful to accom- 

 plish his purpose, and the animals are perfect in health and develop- 

 ment, close breeding may be practiced Avith advantage. 



Crossing. — The practice of crossing, like that of close breeding, 

 has its strong and its weak side. Substantial arguments can be 

 brought both in its favor and against it. Judiciously practiced, it 

 offers a means of procuring animals for the butcher, often superior 

 to and more profitable than those of any pure breed. It is also 

 admissible as the foundation of a systematic and well considered 

 attempt to establish a new breed. Such attempts, however, as 

 they necessarily involve considerable expense, and efforts continued 

 during a long term of years, will be rarely made. But when cross- 

 ing is practiced injudiciously and indiscriminately, and especially 

 when so done for the purpose of procuring breeding animals, it 

 cannot be too severely censured, and is scarcely less objectionable 

 than careless in-and-in breeding. 



The following remarks, from the pen of W. C. Spooner, V. S., 

 are commended as sound and reliable, and as comprising nearly 

 all which need be said on the subject of crossing breeds possessing 

 distinctive characteristics : 



" Crossing is generally understood to refer to the alliance of 

 animals of different breeds, such as between a thorough-bred and a 

 half-bred amongst horses or a South Down and Leicester among 

 sheep. Now the advantages or disadvantages of this system 

 depend entirely'on the object we have in view, whether merely to 

 beget an animal for the butcher, or for the purpose of perpetuating 

 the species. If the latter is the object, tiien crossing should be 

 adopted gradually and with care, and by no means between distant 

 or antagonistic qualities, as for example a thorough-bred and a 

 cart-horse. Tlie result of the latter connection is generally an 

 ill-assorted and unfavorable animal, too heavy perhaps for one pur- 

 pose, and too light for another. If we wish to instil more activity 

 into the cart-horse breed, it is better to do so by means of some 

 hulf-bred animal, whilst the latter can be improved by means of the 

 three-parts-bred horse and this again by the thorough-bred. There 

 is a remarkable tendency, in breeding, for both good qualities 



