194 NOTES ON FIELDS AND CATTLE. 



of Jacob's influencing the colour of the produce of 

 Laban's flock by the agency of peeled rods of hazel, 

 poplar, and chesnut, " set in the gutters in the water- 

 ing troughs where the flocks came to drink." 



A shorthorn cow of purest strain, and suitably 

 mated, has been known to produce a calf of the 

 utterly heterodox colour, black and white ; the only 

 clue to which was that a black and white ox had 

 been her companion in the paddock where she 

 grazed. Other numberless convincing instances there 

 are in the same track. 



When animals with the characteristics of a 

 common type, distinctly, as I have described, and 

 securely set, are paired, the result is all but certain : 

 then indeed holds good the favourite but otherwise 

 deceptive apophthegm of the breeder, that " like pro- 

 duces like ; " and each point may reasonably be ex- 

 pected to come out in place attuned as true, as the 

 tap upon a tambourine from an accomplished hand. 

 As surely as abundant wasp-swarms herald in a 

 summer prolific of plums; as surely as the hedges 

 are white with the nut-blossom when a good corn 

 year is in prospect; as surely as a strong head of 

 hares will indicate the keeper that is worth his 

 wages ; so will the right stamp of produce come out 

 if you get the right elements to begin with. But 

 then the hunting for these elements, is it not of the 

 nature of a journey to "the diggings?" You may 

 be lucky, and you may be lost ! 



" Like produces like " is a phrase that has misled 

 many. True to its primeval impress, the crystal 

 splits beneath the hammer of the geologist into a 



