ON BREEDING. 215 



I 



"The effect of breeding in-and-in may be accelerated or 

 retarded by selection, particularly in those animals who produce 

 many young ones at a time. There may be families so nearly 

 perfect as to go through several generations, without sustaining 

 much injury from having been bred in-and-in. 



" Breeding in-and-in, will, of course, have the same effect in 

 strengthening the good, as the bad properties, and -may be bene- 

 ficial, if not carried too far, particularly in fixing any variety 

 which may be thought valuable. 



" If the original male and female Avere of different families, by 

 breeding from the mother and son, and again from the male pro- 

 duce and the mother, and from the father and the daughter in 

 the same way, two families sufficiently distinct might be obtained ; 

 for the son is only half of the father's blood, and the produce 

 from the mother and the son will be six parts of the mother and 

 two of the father. 



"Although I believe the occasional intermixture of different 

 families .to be necessary, I do not, by any means, approve of mix- 

 ing two distinct breeds, with the view of uniting the valuable 

 properties of both. This experiment has been frequently tried 

 by others as well as myself, but has, I believe, never succeeded. 

 The first cross frequently produces a tolerable animal, but it is 

 a breed that cannot be continued. 



"It is well known that a particular formation generally indi- 

 cates a disposition to get fat, in all sorts of animals; but this rule 

 is not universal, for we sometimes see animals of the mosi 

 approved forms, who are slow feeders, and whose flesh is of a- bad 

 quality, which the graziers easily ascertain by the touch. The 

 disposition to get fat is more generally found in some breeds than 

 in others. The Scotch Highland cattle are remarkable for being 

 almost all quick feeders, although many of them are defective in 

 shape. The Welsh cattle have but little disposition to get fat ; 

 not from being particularly ill-shaped, but because they are 

 almost invariably what the graziers call bad handlers. 



