636 Lvo e Stock Methods of improving ofwhat ncceflitry in, 



difadvantage may often have been produced ; by bringing together fuch breeds, as 

 from the great differences in their forms, qualities, and other properties, could 

 have little or no chance of effecting the purpofe of improvement in any ufeful 

 manner. The agricultural furveys of moft of thofe diftricts where breeding or 

 grazing has been carried to any extent, almoft uniformly complain, that ufeful 

 breeds of live ftock have been injured and debafed by the practice of crofting inju- 

 dicioufly conducted. And a late writer, infpeaking of Iheep, has well obferved, 

 ( that to the mountebank doctrines of eroding diflimilar breeds, which na 

 ture in its infinite wifdom had fet afunder, we are indebted for much confufion and 

 mifmanagement.*&quot; But it muft notwithstanding be allowed, that by eroding, 

 when conducted with fufficient judgment, improvement may in a great meafurebe 

 effected, efpecially in what relates to bone or fize, the hide or coat, the bettering 

 of particular points or parts, and perhaps in what regards the movement or fpeed 

 of the animal : but in other views it would feem incapable of producing thofe be 

 neficial effects which mould conftantly direct the fteps of the breeder. 



As it is in fome meafure a principle founded in phyfiological fcience, and coun 

 tenanced by the obfervation and experience of ages, that animals are fomewhat 

 endowed with the faculty of not only propagating an offspring that has in a confi- 

 derable degree the properties, difpofitions, and refemblance of themfelves, but 

 that is in fome meafure fubject to a fimilarity of difeafe ; it would appear that 

 although there may be occafional deviations, the moft certain method, and that 

 which has the beft foundation in the nature and economy of the animals, (in fo far 

 as the particular qualities and other properties, befides thofe that have been juft 

 mentioned, are concerned,) is to breed in the fame line, perhaps in the fame family; t 

 as, by a careful procedure in this way, the expert breeder may not only have the 

 greateft fecurity for attaining that improvement which he is anxious to produce, 

 but run the lead rilk of deterioration. 



The fuccefs of the practice has indeed not merely been fhown in the breeding 

 of the farmer s ftock, but in that of the fportfman. It has been found that poin 

 ters and game cocks have been bred with the greateft perfection and fuperiority in 

 this mode.:}: And it is by the fame means that the valuable properties of the race 



* Lord Somerville s Syftem of the Board of Agriculture. 



f In the technical language of the breeder this has been termed breeding in-and-ii3 



I Culley oa Live Stock, 



