204 PRINCIPLES OF STOCK-BREEDING. 



The breeding of "grades," which, is so largely- 

 practised in all parts of this country, furnishes a good 

 example of the advantages of cross-breeding. "What 

 are called " natives " here, are animals of mixed blood 

 without any fixed characters, and they are therefore 

 more readily influenced by a cross of superior blood 

 than the local unimproved native breeds of Europe, 

 that have more definite characteristics. 



Earl Spencer has remarked l that " the worse bred 

 the female is," the greater the influence of a well-bred 

 male upon the offspring, and this accords with the 

 observations of practical men generally. 



The originator of the Charmoise breed of sheep, 

 as we have seen, developed the prepotency of the 

 English rams used, by mixing the blood of the ewes 

 of several native races, and thus destroying in them 

 the fixed characters that had previously prevented the 

 predominance of the desired characteristics of the 

 English breeds. 



As the dominant peculiarities of the pure-bred 

 animal are developed by a system of rigorous selec- 

 tion and in-breeding in a certain definite direction, 

 they will also as readily disappear and become latent, 

 if the opposite practice of cross-breeding is resorted 

 to, and this is one of the most uniform effects of this 

 method of breeding. 



If a cross of two distinct breeds is effected by the 

 selection of animals of equal power in the transmis- 

 sion of their peculiar characteristics, the tendency is 

 to make dominant the original characters that the 

 breeds had in common, and to obscure the special 



1 Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, vol. i., p. 22. 



