

CROSS-BREEDING. 193 



Iii all of these cases the object has been to improve 

 an inferior breed by ingrafting upon it the superior 

 characteristics of another. The improvement has 

 been produced, not from the fact that a male of an- 

 other breed has been used, but from the higher breed- 

 ing and superior qualities of the males thus selected. 

 The superior male is found to be prepotent when 

 coupled with females of inferior quality. 



The experience of breeders in making a cross of 

 Cheviot rams upon the ewes of the Black-Faced Heath 

 breed will furnish some important suggestions in re- 

 gard to the real causes of improvement. 



" In this cross," says the intelligent Scotch shep- 

 herd, William Hogg, " the independent habits of the 

 mountain-flocks were lost, and a mongrel progeny, of 

 a clumsy figure, occupied the lowest and warmest of 

 the pastures." The cross-bred animals, although re- 

 taining largely the characteristics of the original breed, 

 were not able to withstand the " hardships and cold 

 of winter," and they required better care and better 

 pastures than the old race had been accustomed to. 



" Another truth which the process of changing a 

 numerous stock has disclosed is, that, in the produce 

 of the first crop, and for several successive issues, the 

 figure, wool, and other qualities of the Cheviot ram, 

 are most conspicuous in the smallest and feeblest of 

 the progeny ; while the properties of the mountain- 

 breed are more fully exhibited in the strongest and 

 most robust of the lambs. This misled many of the 

 storemasters. They did not consider that there was 

 as much Cheviot blood in the coarsest (as they were 

 pleased to call them) as in the finest ; though not so 



