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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



an increased price from the butcher. I have had 

 calves occasionally from Ayrshire cows, whose sire 

 was our native black bull, and they were invariably 

 black, or something approaching it, but I never 

 kept any of them. When I changed my stock 

 and began to keep Alderneys (about six years ago) 

 I was not only desirous of having cattle of the best 

 form and quality, but of getting them all self- 

 coloured fawn, with black muzzles and hoofs, and , 

 a black tuft at the end of the tail, that being a 

 Buckinghamshire fancy. I could get such there 

 by paying an enormous price for them, which I v/as 

 not disposed to do, but hoped to find some in Jer- 

 sey, After however driving about the island for 

 three days, I did not succeed in getting a single 

 one, and so bought some spotted ones of superior 

 form and quality. To go with these, I had an Al- 

 derney bull from Buckinghamshire, having the 

 colour and points just mentioned, and which colour 

 and points had been bred into his family for many 

 generations. The result is, that I breed a large 

 proportion of the calves like him. This year out 

 of nine heifer calves, I have seven fawns with the 

 black points, although nearly all their mothers are 

 spotted. Such was the influence of the sire to 

 colour, but I had form and quality too. The same 

 kind of influence is found to extend to all our do- 

 mestic animals. Our poultry — the chickens of a 

 Cochin China hen and Dorking cock, have the 

 Dorking colour and form ; but some feathers on the 

 leg, the want of the fifth toe, the strength of con- 

 stitution, and buff coloured eegs, speak for the 

 Cochin China mother. Now reverse the parentage. 

 The chickens of the Dorking hen and Cochin 

 China cock are so thoroughly Cochin China in plu- 

 mage, colour and form, that they have been fre- 

 quently (in the hey days of China) sold for them ; 

 but singularly enough they have always the fifth 

 toe of the Dorking, which betrays their origin. The 

 mule and hinney are a striking example that the 

 external form goes after the sire, and the internal 

 after the dam. The hinney is more like the horse ; 

 but the mule is the better animal, having the na- 

 tural constitution of the mare its dam. The Arabs 

 look chiefly to the mare for endurance, the English 

 to the horse for figure and speed. Even in the 

 vegetable kingdom the same principle reigns, and 

 is well known to those nurserymen who bring 

 out new varieties of fruits, flowers, and vegetables. 

 For instance, the pollen taken from the early-frame 

 pea to fructify a marrowfat blossom, will produce 

 only a small pea like the male parent, and less 

 hardy, following the marrowfat; but reverse the 

 case, and take the pollen from the marrowfat to 

 fructify the early frame, and a pea is obtained large 

 in size from ths influence of the male parent, and 

 more hardy in nature from the mother, if I may 

 so speak. But to breed first-class stock of any 

 kind, there can be no doubt that equal care must 

 be bestowed in selecting the most perfect and pure 

 animals on both sides. Some of our noted short- 

 horn men made a great mistake at first in this 

 particular. They calculated that by procuring a 

 bull of the best and purest blood, and cows of 

 good points but without pedigree, they should at- 

 tain their object of producing stock that would be 

 up to the mark ; but they were sadly disappointed. 



and, after years of fruitless attempt, were obliged 

 to sell off" and begin again. Their stock was fair 

 and fetched good ordinary prices, but far below 

 what their after-stock realized, which was bred 

 from pedigreed animals on both sides. I can refer 

 you to the sales I speak of. I am satisfied that 

 some of us make a great mistake in breeding 

 horses, particularly by the use of mixed-bred entire 

 horses. Whatever kinds of horses we are breeding, 

 whether blood horses, dray horses, the Suffolk 

 punch, or Welsh mountain ponies, I am well satisfied 

 that they should be thorough-bred of thtu- kind ; 

 and that on both sides, to secure the most satisfac- 

 tory result. It would appear from what we witness, 

 that some of our farmers think, that by hiring one 

 of the great fat entire horses that we see paraded 

 about our fairs in the spring of the year, and from 

 a mare that they happen to have (no matter what 

 kind) and that has been good once, but now worn 

 out, that they will have a foal that will probably be 

 something superior ; but it ends in disappointment. 

 Do we not frequently meet with in our fairs young 

 horses for sale, that the owners profess have a good 

 deal of pure blood in them, that have not a good 

 point about them, and it would be difficult to say 

 what they are adapted for, and the only indication 

 of blood you can detect is perhaps a delicate skin, 

 which is a positive disadvantage to siich an ill- 

 formed brute. As to the choice of males of any 

 kind of stock, I would suggest that a medium-sized 

 compact animal is preferable to a very large or 

 outsized one. There is another principle I think 

 worth referring to (but in which I have made no 

 observation myself) on account of the high au- 

 thorities who maintain it. The late Earl Spencer 

 held it as a principle, that when a pure bred female 

 had once had issue from one of a different breed, 

 that she was herself ever afterwards to be con- 

 sidered a cross for breeding purposes. Mr. Good- 

 win, a gentleman for many years connected with 

 the Royal Stud at Hampton Court, observed that 

 many of the mares bred foals to the horse Actgeon 

 with white faces and white fetlocks, though Actseon 

 himself had not a bit of white about him ; but the 

 year before these very mares had produced foals to 

 the horse Colonel who had a white face and white 

 fetlock. The circumstance of the chesnut mare 

 having issue by a quagga (a species of wild ass) at 

 the Zoological gardens has been often related ; the 

 mule offspring as might be expected bore a strong 

 resemblance to its sire, but strange to say her 

 subsequent foals, though from a pure bred horse, 

 bore characteristics of the quagga. These and 

 other similar cases should at least serve as a caution 

 not to take crosses from females from which choice 

 stock is intended to be bred. Now, a few words 

 as to the improvement of our native black breed of 

 cattle, for there is no time, even if it were desirable, 

 to go into the question as to whether a better or 

 more profitable breed might not be introduced to 

 supersede them ; but perhaps, in passing, I may 

 venture an opinion, v/hich of course you will only 

 take for what it is worth, that our native breed is 

 susceptible of great improvement. I have oc- 

 casionally seen some beautiful specimens of the 

 breed ; and once some noble ones which were ex- 

 hibited by the Hon. Col. Pennant, of Penryn Castle, 



