LECTURES AND ESSAYS READ AT INSTITUTES. 259 



sold at 25 cents to 50 cents per hundred weight above the market. Upon this 

 estimate, I conclude that Mr. Ashley's humble pig paid over $3,000 premium 

 upon the porcine interests of this vicinity. Now contrast the success of the 

 half breed animal to whicli I have just called your attention. He (the son of 

 the above mentioned celebrated pure-bred) is pure white; in general appear- 

 ance is almost entirely unobjectionable, yet his progeny (from common stock) 

 have been red, black, gray, and white; some have borne a remarkable likeness 

 to a Berkshire, others have very accurately resembled the Duroc, the Chester 

 White, the Poland China, the Essex, and Suffolk. Some have been fat at 

 four weeks of age, and others have been coarse, rangy fellows, and to all 

 appearances will uot feed at an earlier age than one year, with any profit, and 

 will then fail to command a premium on market price. 



An entire lecture might profitably be devoted to the matter which I have 

 thus far touched upon, but in justice to my theme, other things demand my 

 attention. Anatomical structure is usually defined by external form. Thus an 

 animal which has no surplus of head and heels, is usually small but potent in 

 the stomach, and one that is deep and wide in the brisket, and well rounded 

 in the rib, has a powerful respiratory and circulatory system. For the produc- 

 tion of wool the animal presenting the greatest surface exclusive of wrinkles, 

 proportional to gross weight, is best. All animals designed to produce meat 

 are best when they come nearest to filling an oblong box. Animals are best 

 producers of milk when the mammary glands and the veins leading thereto, 

 are apparently of the highest development, and the type of a milker is a 

 truncated four-sided pyramid, reclining upon its side. The animal for labor 

 possesses no peculiar anatomical structure inconsistent with any of the types 

 mentioned, except the light shoulder of the milker, and the extra surface of 

 the wool producer. Now these respective features have a direct bearing upon 

 the true value of pure-breeds, because they are by pure-breeds perpetuated to a 

 greater extent of certainty, than among natives, or the best of grades. 



The pure-breeds have originated and developed under systems conducted 

 with special reference to some of the above types, and the genuine breeders of 

 pure-bred stock have never lost sight of their ideal of a good animal for a 

 special purpose. Thus we have swine bred in a line with reference to special 

 points for at least 75 years ; merino sheep, 100 years ; mutton sheep, 130 

 years; beef cattle, 125 years; and probably the Jersey may trace her single- 

 ness of purpose upwards of 1,000 years. We further observe that what is 

 anatomical perfection in an animal for one purpose, is imperfection for another 

 purpose. At a district fair I once saw judges passing upon the merits of 

 Holsteins, from a Devon standard. Those same men were breeders of fine 

 cattle, and were good judges of a beef animal. 



The physiological peculiarities of an animal are of interest to the stock 

 grower in their relations to assimilation, secretion, and reproduction, i. e., the 

 animal that can assimilate the largest amount of food, and make correspond- 

 ing returns in valuable animal products, is the best, and the degree to which 

 perfection has been attained in these particulars, in an animal not ''proved," 

 is measured by anatomical structure, from external appearances. It is by the 

 senses of sight and touch that we predict the life work of a young native or 

 grade animal. In the pure-bred we add ancestral character, or the probable 

 certainty of things characteristic of the breed. Do you say why not apply 

 this to the native stock? I have no objections, provided you can find suflBcient 

 desirable features characteristic of them ; the only characteristic I know of is 

 a loss upon every one raised. Thus far I have treated of my theme in general 



