YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 101 



very likely revert to the inferiority of its remoter parentage. 

 It need only be suggested, whether the improved bull obtained 

 be Devon or Shorthorn, or Hereford or Alderney -that his 

 descent be unquestionably pure, and that a line of action once 

 marked out be perseveringly followed a course that could not 

 but effect far greater results in a period comparatively short, 

 than those who have not made the experiment will perhaps at 

 first be ready to admit. 



" Division of labor" has been strenuously insisted upon by the 

 best English stock authorities in the business of raising breed 

 ing stock. Those who have the wealth, the leisure, and the 

 taste necessary for this pursuit should be allowed to carry it on, 

 while the farmer will find it his best policy to pay a fair price 

 for a good article, rather than to run the risks of endeavoring 

 to maintain for himself a herd of some pure and distinct breed. 

 In the hope of obtaining some trait of superiority he does not 

 already possess, the breeder may well pay such prices for an 

 animal likely to beget it in his offspring, as it would be the 

 merest folly for any fanner to expend for the worst beef that 

 was ever contained in one skin. 



The English custom of letting the services of bulls as well as 

 rams was then described, and a brief account given of the 

 ram-letting last summer of Jonas Webb and Mr. Sanday. 



The estimates of live stock for Great Britain now show that 

 she supports for her whole area the enormous number of one 

 sheep to every two acres and a half, and one head of cattle to 

 every nine acres and a quarter. According to the N". Y. State 

 census of 1855, there was then one sheep to every eight eight- 

 tenths acres (nearly), and one head of cattle to 13 and a quar 

 ter acres (not quite) ; but the greater weight of the English 

 cattle and sheep over ours is probably enough considerably to 

 increase the disproportion. It was remarked by Lavergne, and 

 cannot fail to have been observed in the examples given of 

 English husbandry, that it " is the English farmer's first object 

 to keep as many sheep as possible." 



