522 MANUAL OF MODERN FARRIERY 



But at present a distinction is made by men who have 

 long been conversant in practice, between a useful sort 

 and a sort that is merely handsome. Utility of form 

 is, therefore, the next general principle, and may be 

 considered as arising from a larger proportion of those 

 parts which are deemed offal, or which bear an inferior 

 price, should be small in proportion to the better parts. 

 A third principle of improvement laid down by breeders 

 consists in the fineness of the muscular parts, or what 

 is termed flesh. But the great object which engrosses 

 the attention of breeders at present, is the fattening 

 quality, or a natural propensity in cattle to arrive at a 

 state of fatness at an early age, and in a short space 

 of time ; and it appears, from observation, that beauty 

 and utility of form, the quality of flesh, and its pro- 

 pensity to fatness, are principles consistent with each 

 other, are frequently found in the same individual, and 

 hereditary in particular lines or families of cattle. In 

 regard to the means of improvement, it has long been 

 an established maxim, that, to improve the breed, it is 

 necessary to cross it with others of an alien stock under 

 an opinion, that continuing to breed from the same line, 

 weakens the stock. This idea, however rooted it may 

 have been in the minds of former practitioners, is now 

 entirely set aside by the modern practice of breeding, 

 not from the same line only, but from the same family : 

 the sire and the daughter, the son and the mother, the 

 brother and sister, are now permitted to improve their 

 own kind ; and in this way the improvement of the 

 several breeds has advanced rapidly to a height un- 

 known before in any age or nation." 



This we may admit has been the case to a certain 

 extent ; but a limit must be put to it, otherwise 

 degeneracy and weakness are sure to follow, and also 

 a train of diseases, which will become hereditary. 



