CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



of an animal is, when the dead-weight of all the 

 eatable parts approaches the nearest to the weight 

 of the animal when alive. 



Principles of Breeding. 



The fundamental and essential principle of 

 improving any of our domestic animals by breed- 

 ing consists in a skilful selection of those males 

 and females the union of whose qualities will 

 induce the properties desired. It was upon this 

 principle that Bakewell formed his celebrated 

 breed of sheep, and it is the only principle upon 

 which any breed can be raised to the highest per- 

 fection of which it admits. Breeding in and in, 

 as it is called, has given rise to a long controversy, 

 which our increasing knowledge of physiology, and 

 a wider induction of facts, carefully observed and 

 accurately recorded, will speedily bring to a close. 

 The facts now collected from a wide surface, and 

 attested by men skilled in the sciences of physi- 

 ology and anatomy, as well as by practical breeders 

 of live-stock, establish the important fact, that 

 breeding by too near affinities, the offspring de- 

 generates. It is a law of nature, and applies to 

 men and animals, and even plants. The accurate 

 experiments of Mr Knight establish the fact, that 

 in the vegetable as well as in the animal kingdom, 

 the offspring of male and female plants, when not 

 related, possess always more strength and vigour 

 than those of near affinities. Sir John S. Sebright 

 tried many experiments by breeding m and in 

 with dogs, fowls, and pigeons, and found that the 

 offspring uniformly degenerated. Sir John Sin- 

 clair relates an experiment with pigs, which he 

 carried so far that the females almost ceased to 

 breed ; and if they did breed, the offspring was so 

 small and delicate, that they died as soon as they 

 were born. To breed, therefore, from the same 

 race, but of different families, is now established 

 as the only system that will secure the highest 

 results in the different breeds. 



Crossing is a means of improving a breed that 



requires many concurring circumstances to insure 



success. The climate and the food must accord 



with the size and constitution of the animal to be 



produced. To increase the size of sheep, without 



augmenting or improving their food, would be a 



ruinous enterprise, and in the face of all principle. 



The attempt to increase size by crossing with 



heavier rams from another country, requires also 



great care that the food and climate be adapted 



to the condition and character of the expected 



race ; for it is in proportion as size is gamed by 



crossing, that delicacy of constitution and liability 



to disease are increased. The constitutional 



qualities of a race of sheep will not accommodate 



themselves to the soil or climate of a country 



differing much in pasturage and temperature from 



that on which it has been long a native, without 



time, great care, skill, and attention. Were we to 



cross our mountain Cheviot ewes with Leicester 



rams, the offspring would labour under two fatal 



disadvantages a constitution too delicate for the 



climate, and a size above the pasture. An attempt 



was made in Scotland some years ago to raise the 



quality of the wool of our mountain-sheep by cross- 



in- them with Cheviot rams, and the result, so far 



asthen developed, was a complete failure. It is 



therefore dangerous to directly transplant the pure 



Cheviot breed to high-lying districts, the system 



adopted being that of crossing Black-faced ewes 



646 



with a Cheviot ram; by this method, a hardy 

 Cheviot stock is at length obtained, though after 

 many generations the wool is often found some- 

 what inferior. 



It is now generally admitted that the male . 

 a higher influence on the character of the offspring 

 than the female. This law is in beautiful accord- 

 ance with that beneficent design so visible in the 

 arrangements of nature, as it enables man to bring 

 the domestic animals to their most profitable con- 

 dition in a far shorter period than if the law had 

 been reversed. There is another fact apparently 

 well established, that the male, by one connection, 

 has a higher influence on the second generation 

 than the actual father. This shews that no im- 

 portant change in the character of any breed can 

 be effected, unless the crossing is continued until 

 the fourth or fifth generation. 



Age of the Parents; its Effects on the Sex of the 

 Offspring. Some very interesting experiments 

 were begun some years ago, the result of which, 

 so far as they go, tend to establish, as a general 

 law of nature, that the offspring of a young ram 

 and ewe, of from four to five years old, will in 

 general be feminine, while that of an old ram and 

 young ewe will in general be masculine. Could 

 this law be practically acted upon, it would be of 

 immense advantage to breeders of stock in every 

 country, but particularly to breeders of stock in 

 such a country as Australia, in which the rapid 

 increase of the number of stock is an object of so 

 great importance. There is an able paper on this 

 curious subject in the first number of the Quarterly 

 Journal of Agriculture, containing the results of 

 the experiments made in France, from which the 

 following facts and views are extracted: 

 Charles Giron de Buzarcingues proposed at a 

 meeting of the Agricultural Society of Severac, on 

 the 3d of July 1826, to divide a flock of sheep into 

 two equal parts, so that a greater number of males 

 or females, at the choice of the proprietor, should 

 be produced from each of them. Two of the 

 members of the society offered their flocks to 

 become subjects of his experiments; and 

 results have now been communicated, which are 

 in accordance with the author's expectations. The 

 first experiment was conducted in the following 

 manner: He recommended very young rams to- 

 be put to the flock of ewes from which the pro- 

 prietor wished the greater number of females in 

 their offspring, and also, that during the season 

 when the rams were with the ewes, they should 

 have more abundant pasture than the others ; 

 while to the flock from which the proprietor wisl 

 to obtain male lambs chiefly, he recommended 

 him to put strong and vigorous rams four or five 

 years old.' 



The author of the paper says : 

 law, as far as we are able to detect it, seems 1 

 be, that when animals are in good condition, 

 plentifully supplied with food, and kept from 

 breeding as fast as they might do, they are most 

 likely to produce females ; or, in other words, 

 when a race of animals is in circumstances favour- 

 able for its increase, nature produces the greatest 

 number of that sex which, in animals that do not 

 pair, is most efficient for increasing the number o 

 the race. But if they are in a bad climate, o 

 on stinted pasture, or if they have already giy 

 birth to a numerous offspring, then nature, setting 

 limits to the increase of the race, produces more 



