LIVE STOCK. 305 



power, are evinced by oilier facts. Although there are frequent 

 approaches to excellence, yet no human sagacity can command 

 results. Animals of the same family often differ essentially 

 among themselves. Pigs of the same litter seldom fail to present 

 a variety j and twin animals are frequently marked by peculiar and 

 striking distinctions from each other. The famous bull Comet 

 is still considered as the unrivalled paragon of excellence ; the 

 celebrated Durham ox remains without a successful competitor : 

 and the brothers and sisters of the well-known Charlemont ox ? 

 shown in various parts of the United States, and afterwards re 

 ceived in England as an animal of most extraordinary size and fat 

 ness, were none of them remarkable for any peculiar excellence. 

 This was strongly evinced at a recent letting of rams, or tups. 

 as they are here designated, which I attended, at the residence 

 of one of the best farmers, and one of the most eminent breeders 

 of Southdown sheep, in the kingdom, Mr. Jonas Webb, of Ba- 

 braham, in Cambridgeshire. Here were exhibited one hundred 

 and seventy-seven animals of the finest description, bred with all 

 the care which it seems possible to exercise, and with all the 

 skill which great acuteness of judgment and long experience 

 could give. Yet the differences among these animals, in form, 

 symmetry, size, quantity and quality of wool, were so great, 

 that while the services of some of them, for a season, were rated 

 at five guineas, those of others readily commanded fifty guineas. 

 But although human sagacity and power can command no 

 more, it should be matter of grateful surprise that so much is 

 within their reach. The great law that like produces like, 

 though it may not be invariable, is, comparatively, of universal 

 operation. Good qualities are propagated by the union of ani 

 mals possessing good qualities : and defects, and faults, and 

 infirmities, are, in like manner, extended and aggravated. The 

 application of this principle, or physical law, has, in this country, 

 been most marked in its results. Prom all that I have seen, 

 there seems to me reason to doubt the power of any man to 

 produce what may be called an entirely new breed, or to do any 

 thing more than, by his skill, to modify or improve such as al 

 ready exist. This, however, is often done in a most remarkable 

 manner. The old proverb certainly holds true, that &quot; a good 

 cow may have a bad calf; &quot; but then it is much more likely that 

 she will have a good one. than that a bad cow will have a srood 



O D 



26* 



