CATTLE AND SHEEP. 5 



three or four years brought a fresh generation of these 

 animals, their fleeting series enabled a successful experi- 

 mentalist to establish something of uniformity within the 

 limits of one human life. So, from most heterogeneous 

 materials, breeds both of cattle and sheep, having respec- 

 tively distinctive qualities, were called into existence. Of 

 either sort, one of cattle, the improved short-horn, and of 

 sheep, the new Leicester obtained a decided pre-eminence. 

 They gained a footing in almost every agricultural dis- 

 trict of England and Scotland. The uncivilized herds 

 and flocks of our predecessors shrank before them as rapidly 

 as the red man before the white in the New World ; and 

 though fashion certainly pushed them into some districts 

 for which they were unsuited, and in which they degenerated 

 rapidly, yet in the main they have retained their conquests. 

 No doubt they trenched on the dominion of the old and 

 pure races. They drove in their outposts and even made 

 inroads into their territory. Meanwhile the possessors of 

 the old races were not insensible to the spirit of improve- 

 ment which was abroad, nor to the fierce competition which 

 was forced upon them. To them, as to men in higher 

 station, three courses were open. They might discard their 

 own stock as unequal to the occasion, and adopt that which 

 the enterprise of other men placed within their reach ; or, 

 following the example before their eyes, they might aspire 

 to success by crosses of which their own herds should be 

 the foundation ; or, thirdly, they might seek improvement by 

 judicious selection and rejection within their own domains. 

 Happily, they adopted the last course, and the purity of our 

 old races of cattle was maintained. Who would not regret 

 the disappearance of the beautiful Devon and the picturesque 

 West Highlander ? Either position or design had kept these 

 races pure, and they retained all the distinctive marks of 

 purity. Thus they were improved without being adulterated, 

 and remain to this day as marked in their respective cha- 

 racteristics, as they were before an improved short-horn or 

 a new Leicester had been called into existence. Their im- 



