208 NOTES ON FIELDS AND CATTLE. 



the same proportion, and the price of female calves 

 for rearing was greatly augmented." Foreigners 

 have held that man can exert an artificial influence 

 upon the proportion born of male and female. A 

 secret of this sort would be of great value to the 

 farmer if it could be endorsed in practice. It is as 

 follows. I borrow from Milburn. 



Many investigations have been made to show how 

 far it is within the power of man to control the ratio 

 of the sexes in the animals he breeds. The result of 

 " M. C. C. de Buzareurgnes' experiments on sheep 

 was that vigour was favourable to female, and the 

 converse to male births. For females, he proposed 

 to select young rams, and place them in a good pas- 

 ture ; for males, three to five shear animals, and to 

 place them in an inferior pasture. His experiment 

 was successful. In his female trial there were seventy- 

 six female lambs produced against thirty-five males : 

 and in his male trial there were produced eighty 

 males against fifty-five females. Another trial was 

 made by M. Cournuejouis. One section was put to 

 young male ram lambs, and on a good pasture ; the 

 other on a poorer pasture, and with old rams. The 

 result was, that in the first experiment there were 

 fifteen males and twenty-five females, and, in the 

 second, there were twenty-six males and fourteen 

 females. 



" Buzareurgnes also showed that in several lots the 

 approximations to male or female births were also in 

 the ratio of the ages of the animals on both sides. 

 Thus of the young ewes put to the young rams, the 

 two-year-old ewes produced fourteen males and 



