430 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



probabilities are, that the sex will take after the stronger, more robust parent. Thus, a 

 feeble cow, or too young a one, or one too old (past her prime), fecundated by a vigorous 

 bull, will most generally bring a bull calf; but the reverse will happen if the inferiority is on 

 the side of the bull. 



Thus, at the Agricultural College at Grignon, visited by the editor of this work a few 

 years ago, forty-six parturitions of young heifers with their first and second calves, brought 

 twenty-nine bulls and seventeen heifers; while twenty-eight parturitions of older cows, in 

 their full vigor of maturity, brought eighteen females and ten males. So, at the Agricultural 

 Institute at Hohenheim, which we also visited, a hundred and forty parturitions of young 

 cows brought eighty males and sixty females; while older cows have always brought more 

 females than males. 



And so, if you put a cow that has recently calved, while still rather feeble, to a vigorous 

 bull, the product will almost invai iably be a male. A good dairy cow, with her strength of 

 constitution constantly taxed, will bring more males than females, unless special pains are 

 taken to increase her constitutional vigor by extra care and feed. 



Dr. James Law, in an exhaustive treatise on this subject, sums up the results of his 

 investigations, in the following conclusions: 1. &quot; That while we cannot deny an occasional 

 manifestation of the power of the maternal mind in determining the sex of the product of 

 conception, yet this is only operative in a limited number of individuals, and cannot generally 

 be availed of by the breeder, but is ever to be borne in mind as something to be guarded 

 against as being a possible source of failure, on his part, to control sex. 



2. Serving the female when her udder is full, may have a slight influence in producing 

 female offspring, but only in exceptional cases, as it operates only through the mental 

 impressions. 



3. No confidence whatever is to be placed in any theory or plan based on a special point 

 of origin for the spermatic artery, on the development of the impregnating fluid in the right 

 or left testicle, or of the embyro in the right or left side of the womb. 



4. The resort to sires and dams that breed mainly to one sex, is very plausible in theory, 

 but as yet entirely unsupported by facts. Then again, if successful, it will fix in the breed a 

 quality which a change of market may soon render a most undesirable one. 



5. The doctrine of the regular alternation of sex in the ova successively matured, is not 

 in harmony with some other physiological facts, and will require more extended and definite 

 proof of its truth than has yet been furnished. 



6. The doctrine of the female nature of the immature ovum, and of the male character 

 of the ripe one, has many physiological considerations in its favor, and as applied to the 

 uniparous animals, is supported by an array of facts that would warrant its adoption where- 

 ever it can be consistently carried out. 



7. That the maturity, strength, and vigor of the one parent has a great influence in 

 determining its own sex in the majority of the progeny, while early youth, old age, weakness, 

 debility, and exhaustion, lessens this prepotency, and allows a preponderating influence to bo 

 exercised by the other sex. That generous feeding of the dam, with rest, greatly favors 

 the generation of females, while a poor diet favors the production of males. 



8. That although the general tendency is to strike a fair balance between the male and 

 female progeny, yet this, like all other physiological laws, will bend somewhat to the circum 

 stances in which the race happen to live. Thus, under rich feeding, abundance, and ease, 

 there is a stimulus given toward the production of females and the rapid increase of numbers. 

 Conversely, under poor feeding and privation, the tendency is toward an excess of males, and 

 the reduction of the race to proportions more in keeping with their supply of food. Again, 

 when a great excess of males exists, it tends to correct itself by earlier impregnations, the 

 generation of females, and a restoration of the balance of the sexes. Such laws having been 

 ascertained, it is open to us to avail ourselves of them as of the other laws of reproduction. 



