200 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



change the stram of blood sufficiently often to avoid any 

 necessity of breeding from too near relationships. The 

 necessity of breeding from close affinities will rarely exist, 

 except for the purpose of trying to build up a new breed, 

 where, in some instances, it may be unavoidable. 



Cross-breeding is the coupling of two animals of different 

 and distinct breeds. Where it is practised for the sake of 

 getting size and early maturity for the butcher, it is often 

 expedient ; but, where it is the object to produce animals to 

 breed from, it is never judicious. The use of a pure-bred 

 male upon a mongrel or grade female is not a case of cross- 

 ing; but the term is often used as between two strains of 

 blood or two families of the same breed. Crossing with the 

 purpose of procuring animals for the butcher offers many 

 important advantages in individual cases ; but it is seldom 

 • the object upon New-England farms. There are few sec- 

 tions in this State, where, in the case of cattle, it is thought 

 desirable to breed especially for the butcher. But the use 

 of a pure-bred male upon a low-bred female will almost inva- 

 riably succeed, and produce good results. 



Coming now to the apj^lication of the general pcinciples of 

 breeding to the details of the breeding of stock for the dairy, 

 we are met at once by a large class of questions on which the 

 minds of practical breeders have long been divided. Among 

 them are questions as to the age at which the young animal 

 intended for the dairy should be put to breeding, — is there 

 any method of influencing the sex of the J^oung ? What is 

 the value of Guenon's method of judging the qualities of 

 dairy stock ? and how shall we avail ourselves of its advan- 

 tages, if an}^ in breeding for the dairy ? At what period of 

 the " heat " will the cow be most likely to conceive when put 

 to the bull? Has the first impregnation of the heifer any 

 perceptible influence upon the progeny got by subsequent 

 impregnations by the same or other bulls? 



To answer these and innumerable other questions of a simi- 

 lar nature connected with the practice of breeding, grouping 

 together the vast body of facts which bear more or less 

 directly upon them, would require something like a treatise 

 devoted to the solution of each. I can expect to do little 

 more than allude to them, with no attempt at giving them in 

 a systematic or logical order. 



