BREEDING. 211 



breeders, from Bakewell downwards, is, that whereas 

 " formerly a great prejudice prevailed in favour of 

 big-boned, large beasts, it has bee a ascertained that 

 this breed is in point of profit much inferior to the 

 middle-sized kind." It is to be regarded as a golden 

 accident if you meet with animals possessing, com- 

 bined, the quality and size of Royal Butterfly's pa- 

 rents. The best females of the fashionable breeders, 

 to-day, are rather under than over-sized, but rounded 

 and roomy, having a carcase deep and broad, with 

 the less valuable parts (head, bones, &c.) compara- 

 tively small. There are some agriculturists whose 

 stock is large, but it is too generally coarse in pro- 

 portion to the increased frame. 



How to breed dwarf animals is the puzzle. It 

 would pay to know this for certain, there being a 

 constant demand for such. How to stunt symmetri- 

 cally, without subjecting the poor animal to hardship, 

 is the question to be solved. However tiny the 

 parents, the offspring, if well kept, is almost sure to 

 outstrip them. This moment I know of a pony scarce 

 bigger than a Shetland, running on an alluvial moor, 

 with a foal as high as herself. By starving, a creature 

 is rendered of much smaller size than he would other- 

 wise have attained to ; but usually, then, some one 

 or more points are thrown into hideous disproportion 

 to the rest of his frame. He is usually most signally 

 disfigured as well as dwarfed. A toy dog has gin 

 administered to him in his porridge from the cradle 

 to his perfect stature ; a bantam is bred late in the 

 year. Perhaps the best way to effect your object, if 

 your taste be for ponies and the like, is to breed from 



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