THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE, 



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ON INCREASING THE FECUNDITY OF OUR DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



CHINESE LIVE STOCK. 



Sir, — I have been greatly interested in reading 

 the various letters on double cropping, and on ob- 

 taining lambs early and twice a-year ; because all this 

 discussion tends to improvement, and an increase in 

 our supplies of animal and vegetable food : for, if we 

 do not travel quite so fast or so far as the enthu- 

 siastic advocate of any new system recommend, yet 

 we are led into considering whether we cannot im- 

 prove our present mode ; and the crotchets of an en- 

 thusiast, passing through the brains of sensible, prac- 

 tical men, have often led to great results and large 

 profits. 



I therefore write to draw the attention of our 

 agriculturists to the live stock and agricultural ma- 

 nagement of the Chinese, as affording us points 

 which we may possibly improve upon. And first as 

 to live stock : in all kinds the Chinese appear to 

 have studied fecundity, early maturity, and aptitude 

 to fatten. Their ideas of beauty are different to 

 ours ; but, by a process of crossing, or by employing 

 Chinese animals as mothers and breeders only, with 

 our pure-bred male animals as sires, we might ob- 

 tain good results. 



I begin with sheep. It was stated in a paper read 

 at the Society of Arts on the Sth instant, that these 

 sheep were introduced into England by Mr. Ruther- 

 ford Alcock, Vice-Consul at Shanghae, who in 1854 

 shipped several of them as a present to Prince 

 Albert. The Prince in 1855 presented three ewes to 

 the London Zoological Society. Lord Ducie also 

 had some ; but, on the death of this lamented noble- 

 man, the sheep were lost or dispersed. In the Lon- 

 don Gardens the increase of lambs was so great that 

 it was considered a nuisance. One ewe had five 

 lambs, another four, and a third three, thus making 

 thirteen lambs from three ewes. And not having 

 accommodation, and not wishing to be overrun with 

 Chinese sheep, which were not very attractive to 

 visitors, the keepers actually used the lambs as fresh 

 food for the lions and tigers, till the breed was ex- 

 tinct. Not without remembrance, however ; for Mr. 

 Bartlett, the Superintendent, in 1857 wrote to the 

 effect that the sheep bred twice a year, and the lambs 

 were easily reared by hand, and were perfectly hardy. 

 The wool, though coarse, was of a useful kind, and 

 in the opinion of the Bradford Chamber of Com- 

 merce, was then worth Is. per lb. The Americans 

 acted differently, and more sensibly. The introducer 

 of them into the United States (a Captain Theodore 

 Smith), who began with three sheep in 1854, in 

 eighteen months had an increase of seventy-four, 

 one of the sheep having had twelve lambs in fifteen 

 months. He states the sheep as large and handsome, 

 and the mutton of superior delicacy. 



Mr. Pell, who purchased some of these sheep, 

 states that he has sheared as much as 91bs. of wool 

 off each, and that so greatly were they appreciated, 

 that he was selling them at five hundred dollars each 

 to various friends. The lecturer recommends this 

 breed as a means of rapidly stocking our Australian, 

 New Zealand, and African colonies ; and, when a 

 large stock was obtained, to cross with the merino 

 to improve the wool. In England he recommends 

 crossing with the Polder Holstcin breed, which also 



frequently produces five at a birlh, and is a long- 

 wooUed sheep, yielding from 10 to 20 lbs. of wool 

 each ; this cross to be again crossed with the South- 

 down or Merino. 



However, in England it appears to me that the chief use 

 would be in producing an early and large quantity of 

 lambs, CO be fattened as such ; the ram employed being 

 a Southdown, to improve the form and quality, and 

 cow's milk to be used to assist in rearing, if required. 

 They also seem to be quite a cottager's sheep, as being 

 used to hand- feeding and confinement, and therefore 

 bearing tethering on roadsides ; and, from the number 

 of lambs, no doubt yielding much milk, which (the 

 lambs being sold) might enter into household use. They 

 would be a useful substitute for the goat, as less liable 

 to wander, and more valuable in flesh and wool. 



The Chinese pigs are well known in their crosses ; 

 they have diminished the size and increased the fatten- 

 ing property of many of our native breeds, the Suffolks 

 for instance. It would be worth while employing them 

 in a pure state as mothers only, crossing them with the 

 Berkshire boar, to give increased size and better quality 

 in the progeny. From experience in the pure Chinese I 

 can state them as being very productive, good mothers, 

 good constitutions, quick in coming to maturity and in 

 fattening, and able to keep up their condition where those 

 of large breeds got thin. But they are an ugly shape, 

 reminding one of a fat Chinaman, and the bacon is of 

 indifferent quality. 



The Chinese fowls, Shanghai or Cochin China, are 

 well known. Over-valued at one time, they are under- 

 valued now ; they are, however, quite a poor man's 

 fowl, from being so completely domesticated and bear- 

 ing confinement well, laying so great a quantity of eggs, 

 and from their chickens coming so early to maturity. 

 As producers of eggs and early chickens they ought to 

 be the most profitable of all breeds. And a Dorking 

 cock might be employed to improve the shape and 

 colour of the chickens. 



Ducks are kept to an enormous extent in China. 

 Whether the plan of keeping them in large barges, sur- 

 rounded with projecting stages covered with coops, so 

 that the birds get most of their own living from the 

 swamps and mouths of rivers, where these barges are 

 moored, would be practicable in this country, is a ques- 

 tion which cannot be answered till it has been tried. 

 There are, however, many lakes and small islands where 

 the experiment might be made. As the Chinese hatch 

 the eggs by artificial means, their ducks lay a prodigious 

 number of eggs ; so that, if only as egg-layers, they 

 would be an acquisition ; the eggs in this country being, 

 of course, hatched by other fowls. 



Gold and silver pheasants and the orange-crested teal 

 are natives of China; and several of the other biids 

 possess great beauty of form and brilliancy of colour. 



But the advantages the Chinese breeds will give us 

 are principally fecundity, quickness of fattening, and 

 complete domesticity. In this country, form and early 

 maturity are often obtained at the expense of hardihood 

 and fecundity. In reading the annals of Shorthorns, as 

 published in your paper, this last defect strikes one 

 forcibly ; splendid animals, bought at an enormous 

 price, will not breed, or have but one calf; and bulls 



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