ON BREEDING AND REARING ANIMALS. 39 



number of generations, have borne the same ge- 

 neral characters. These are examples, where 

 great numbers have contributed to the formation 

 of the several breeds, and while the general cha- 

 racter is found invariable, it is not observed to 

 be accompanied by any general deterioration, in 

 any essential quality : where any deterioration 

 therefore, is observed, it is most probably ascriba- 

 ble to one of two causes. 



1st. From some peculiarity of circumstances, 

 few animals only may be concerned in the pro- 

 duction of the breed, and then, any individual 

 defect must not only be transmitted uncorrected, 

 but will necessarily increase in the progeny ; a 

 tendency to that defect being inherited by both 

 parents, and both being immediately descended 

 from its original propagatoi'. This defect may 

 be in size, from inclination to feed at an early 

 age, to feed fat with a comparative small con- 

 sumption of vegetable food, to lay that fat on 

 valuable points, or in constitutional health, and 

 according to the nature of the original defect, the 

 breed will become bad graziers, or incapable of 

 producing any but an unhealthy offspring. 



2dly. The same effects may follow in breeds 

 formed by selection. The selector may have be- 

 gun with an individual having some radical de- 

 fect in form, constitution, or quality: and if he 



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