166 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 



His herd is now small, but choice ; for he has sold the poorer 

 animals and kept none but the best. He breeds from the stock 

 of 1817, and later brought, and holds his own with the owners 

 of recently imported animals. 



Breeding as an Art. In breeding, we cannot be too strongly 

 impressed with the fact that LIKE PRODUCES LIKE. Does jf man 

 gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles? We should 

 regard purity of blood, choosing our breeding-animals from a 

 family in which there has been a succession of animnls of the 

 same type. If we use a grade bull we are never sure but that 

 the calf will take on the type of some one of the worst of his 

 ancestors. Climate, soil, and food, have a great effect on the 

 physical development of both men and animals. A genial cli 

 mate and abundance of food make beautiful and healthy ani 

 mals, and the magnificent Shorthorn doubtless owes it suprem 

 acy to the fact that it had both of these aids in the valley of 

 the Tees. 



We should strive to breed so that the defects of one parent 

 may be counterbalanced by the points of the other. If the 

 dam is inferior in girth, the sire should be fine there ; if the one 

 be too long in body, the other should be rather short. We 

 should never cross animals of very great dissimilarity of devel 

 opment, however, lest the defect be thereby unreached, nor 

 should such diverse breeds as the Alderney and Shorthorn 

 be mingled. Mr. Clay is a decided opponent to the practice 

 of " in-and-in" breeding, basing his objections on what he deems 

 adequate experience and observation. In his opinion it is as 

 wrong to breed closely with animals, as for cousins and other 

 near relatives to intermarry. Bakewell, of Dishley, England, 

 proved that fully. He gathered the best specimens of sheep 

 and Longhorns, and bred them up to good specimens making 

 the Leicester into the improved Dishleys, and very superior 

 Longhorns. But by " in-and-in," or close breeding, the stock 

 ran down. The Bakewells, or Dishleys, had to invigorate 

 with new crosses, and the Longhorns, being at best a poor 



