Cross-Breedinf/ Cattle. 53 



preliminary to attempts at cross-breeding', unless of the most 

 random and indiscriminate character. 



When such attempts have been unsuccessful, the failure has in 

 most instances arisen from the use of inferior bulls, since the 

 increased value of the offspring depends on their bearing' in a 

 marked degree the superior stamp and quality of the sire. 



Whilst the materials for successful cross-breeding are now 

 ready at hand, new inducements, new aids, and new lights are 

 not wanting for our encouragement and guidance. The demand 

 for meat is not only larger but more fastidious — even the artisan 

 class being now more dainty in their choice ; the coarser animals 

 are, therefore, more depreciated than formerly : moreover science, 

 by teaching us to note the action of different kinds of food on 

 the animal economy, leads us to set a special value on those 

 breeds whose powers of assimilating rich food are greatest. 

 Veterinary science also not only enables us to treat ordinary 

 forms of disease, but prompts us to try to reconcile by cross- 

 breeding the two great desiderata — a vigorous constitution with 

 aptitude to fatten. 



Whilst I advocate judicious cross-breeding, let it be distinctly 

 understood that I fully appreciate the importance of maintaining 

 our principal breeds in their utmost purity. This object, how- 

 ever, will be best effected by reserving all the most perfect female 

 specimens for the maintenance of the pure race, and bv appro- 

 priating to cross-breeding those only which are defective in some 

 few points. 



The importance of using, even for cross-breeding, none but 

 first-class bulls, can hardly be sufficiently insisted upon. Indeed 

 the marked success which has attended the use of short-horn 

 bulls may be attributed not less to their established position 

 than to the intrinsic merits of the race. 



There are few of our domesticated animals, to the breeding of 

 which as much time, talent, and capital has been devoted as to 

 the improved short-horn. He has, in consequence, acquired a 

 permanent stamp and character which is of the utmost value for 

 the object of improving common dairy stock, because the breeder 

 feels assured that the valuable properties so carefully elaborated 

 in the parent Avill be transmitted to the offspring. 



Commencing our survey with the South-west of England, we 

 find in the mild, moist, congenial climate of Devonshire a race 

 almost faultless in form (especially in North Devon), which, 

 while maintaining its purity at home, has exerted much influence 

 on the cattle of other counties. The cows would be of great 

 value to put to Hereford or short-horn bulls, particularly the 

 latter, and we have seen some good specimens of this cross shown 

 in the Agricultural Hall, Islington, in 1862 and 1863; but the 



