[ 26 ] 



was deemed a point indifpenfibly neceflarv in a 

 feeding beaft, and it went the length of ah-noTr 

 being deemed — the {horter the better : this is now 

 no longer contended for. Many of the charac- 

 teriflicks of the prefent day willj in like manner, 

 gradually fall into difufe, as people come to 

 open their eyes or this fubjeft. The fact is, I 

 have feen animals that had a powerful tendency 

 to fatten, which were almoft, in every refpeft, the 

 reverfe of the fliape moll: highly efteemed at 

 prefent, and the contrary. And by referring every 

 pcrfon who has had opportunities of obferving 

 many breeds of the fame kind of animals, to his 

 own experience, I have no doubt, but he will ea- 

 fily recolletl inftances of the fame kind, or at 

 leaft, if his mind be unprejudiced, that he will 

 foon have occafion to obferve it. To that expe- 

 rience then, whether paft or to come, I refer on 

 this occafion. 



One circumftance, however, it is neceflary here 

 to advert to, viz. that as the breeds of animals, 

 from which the feleftion was begun, were ori- 

 ginally of very good kinds, and chanced at thft 

 fame time to polfefs thofe ftiapes that are now 

 deemed fo effentially requifite; and as the im- 

 proved breeds that have been fele£ted from thefe- 

 are all found to poffefs thefe fliapes ; it is by no 

 means an unnatural conclufion to infer, that thefe 

 ihapes are in fome degree infeparably conneifted 



with 



