^HE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



499 



sail try, and we had well-nigh added in the gentry of the 

 neighbourhood. Let the reader only note how our re- 

 porter for Bedfordshire cited his Grace's conduct to the 

 other Magistrates of his county. Let us but remember 

 that, though good shot as he was, ho gave up Game- 

 preserving, and made the farmers his keepers; con- 

 fident tliat they never would deny him the means 

 for fair sport. And let us dwell for a moment 

 on the welcome with which this example was cited in 

 the discussion last year on that delicate subject, the over- 

 preservation of game ; and how the Bedfordshire men 

 answered at once for the success of the experiment. 

 It was this feeling of the true sportsman that went to 

 complete the character of the Duke of Bedford as a 

 country gentleman. He cared not for the butcheries 

 of the battue, if he could get fair open shooting. He 

 was a really good judge of a horse, and he bred some 

 of the best ; but he hated the mere trickery of the turf. 



and for many years, though he van horses, rarely 

 himself attended on a course. Ho was an admirable 

 horseman, and whenever the Oakley were in want of a 

 Master he took to them, still subscribing liberally when 

 he gave them up again. 



We write on no hearsay evidence. We have 

 seen the iiirming at and about Woburn. We have 

 "told off" the cottages as we have driven along. We 

 have heard the reception given to the Duke of Bed- 

 ford's name at many a meeting in the Country, and we 

 have learnt his character from all classes. It is one 

 that we fe'el we could scarcely colour too highly, and it 

 is one that we would specially offer for imitation to the 

 other great landowners of the Kingdom. PROPERir 

 HAS ITS Duties as well as its Rights— a 

 principle of which no man has given a higher or a* 

 more earnest interpretation than the late lamented 

 Duke of Bedford. 



THE BREEDING OF IMPROVED STOCK. 



CARMARTHENSHIRE FARMERS' CLUB. 



The Chairman (Mr. Jas. Buckley, Penyfai) 

 in introducing the subject for discussion said : I 

 approach the question with considerable diffi- 

 dence, because of its acknowledged difficulty, 

 and the diversity of opinions entertained upon 

 it. It is a subject, too, I should not have 

 chosen to introduce, but from a conviction of 

 its vast importance to the farmers who derive 

 so large a proportion of their returns from the sale 

 of the young stock they have bred and reared. I 

 trust this discussion will elicit information, for 

 there are those connected with this club, who have 

 had considerable experience in the breeding of 

 stock of various kinds. There are certain great 

 natural principles with which (although they may 

 appear somewhat remote) the intelligent breeder of 

 stock should be familiar, and which I am induced 

 to refer to the rather, as those principles have been 

 the subject of attack by men — by men standing 

 high for their attainments in natural science, and 

 doubtless deservedly so, but who, if I may venture 

 an opinion, have had but little experience in the 

 breeding of our domestic animals. I refer to Mr. 

 Darwin and his school. This great naturalist has 

 lately published a work " On the Origin of Spe- 

 cies," which has been extensively read. He attacks 

 the fundamental principle always held by natural- 

 ists of the greatest eminence, that each species of 

 animals was created separately or independently, 

 and has a fixed existence. In opposition to this 

 doctrine he argues that species are mutable and 

 change, not into many varieties merely (which is 

 allowed), but that these varieties in the course of 

 time become new species, forming a fresh additional 

 group of genus ; and following the same course of 

 argument, he goes on to show that the whole 

 animal kingdom has descended from at most four 

 or five original progenitors, if not from one proto- 

 type, into which life was at first breathed by the 

 Creator ; and that all animals have arrived at their 



present state of perfection by a natural process of 

 improvement — the human species among the rest. 

 At a lecture delivered a few months ago by Mr. 

 Huxley, a disciple of Mr. Darwin's, at the British 

 Association, the Bishop of Oxford said — "If I 

 may be allowed to inquire, would you rather have 

 an ape for your grandfather or your grandmother ?" 

 The enthusiastic naturalist replied, " I would 

 rather have had apes on both sides for my ances- 

 tors, than human beings so warped by prejudice 

 that they were afraid to behold the truth." Mr. 

 Darwin's book, however, abounds with interesting 

 observations into nature, such as only a man of 

 his great acquirements could make, and will be 

 much read ; but the deductions he draws are 

 doubtless fallacious. When we find that he claims 

 untold ages to bring about these changes, and calls 

 such a period as from the date of the creation a 

 fragment of time, it looks something like begging 

 the question. But mere theory will not do for the 

 farmer, his business is essentially practical ; and 

 it is quite sufficient for his purpose to know that 

 the domestic animals with which he has to deal 

 have at least continued specifically the same for the 

 last 2000 years or more. It can be shown that 

 there has been no specific change in them during 

 that period. We therefore take it as a law of na- 

 ture that species do not change, but are specifically 

 permanent. Nature seems to have placed a guard 

 that every species should continue unmixed and 

 unchanged, for a cross-bred animal or hybrid, the 

 offspring of a cross between two distinct species, is 

 a barren mule, and incapable of producing off- 

 spring like itself, or any offspring at all, except in 

 a few solitary instances when again paired with a 

 pure species, and in those cases it has appeared 

 a mere struggle into life. I met, however, an ar- 

 ticle, exceedingly interesting and well written, in 

 the CornUll Magazine of May last, in support of 

 the above theory, and attempting to overthrow the 



