SECRETARY'S REPORT. 91 



would be required that each male should approximate ; and thus 

 there would exist among what may be termed fashionable sires, a 

 corresponding form and character different from, and superior to, 

 those of the general stock of the country. This form and charac- 

 ter would in most instances have been acquired hj perseverance in 

 breeding from animals which possessed the important or fancied 

 requisites, and might therefore be said to be almost confirmed in 

 such individuals. Under these circumstances, striking results 

 would doubtless follow the introduction of these sires to a common 

 stock ; results which would lead superficial observers to remark, 

 that individual sires possessed properties as males, which in fact 

 were only assignable to them as improved animals." 



The opinion entertained, by some, that the female possesses the 

 power generally ascribed to the male, he explains also by a refer- 

 ence to the history of breeding : — " It is well known to persons 

 conversant with the subject of improved breeding, that of late years 

 numerous sales have taken place of the entire stocks of celebrated 

 breeders of sires, and thus, the females, valuable for such a pur- 

 pose, have passed into a great number of hands. Such persons 

 have sometimes introduced a cow so acquired to a bull inferior in 

 point of descent and general good qualities, and the offspring is 

 known, in many instances, to have proved superior to the sire by 

 virtue of the dam's excellence, and to have caused a suspicion in 

 the minds of persons not habituated to compare causes with effects, 

 that certain females also possess the property in question." 



The writer gives various instances illustrative of his views, in 

 some of which the male only, and in others the female only, was 

 the high-bred animal, in all of which the progeny bore a remarka- 

 ble resemblance to the well-bred parent. He says, that where both 

 parents are equally well bred, and of nearly equal individual excel- 

 lence, it is not probable that their progeny will give general proof 

 of a preponderating power in either parent to impress peculiar 

 characteristics upon the offspring ; — yet in view of all the informa- 

 tion we have upon the subject, he recommends a resort to the best 

 males as the most simple and efficacious mode of improving such 

 stocks as require improvement, and the only proceeding by which 

 stock already good can be preserved in excellence. 



Mon. Giron* expresses the opinion that the relative age and 

 vigor of the parents exercises very considerable influence, and 



*In his work, " De la Generation," Paris, 1828.) 



