30 ON BREEDING AND REARING ANIMALS. 



There can be no doubt, but that all these 

 failures may occur, when breeding in and in, 

 but they are clearly the effect of improper se- 

 lection, and establish no grounds of objection, 

 that will not as justly attach to the principle of 

 cross breeding. 



In breeding animals for fattening, it is the 

 usual practice to select those for breeders, that 

 discover the greatest propensity to fatten or 

 grow fleshy, and such animals are generally 

 uncertain and bad breeders, and always bad 

 nurses ; and this rests on the principle I have 

 stated. The female being selected, as one in 

 whom the exuberance of nature is in her flesh, 

 Bnd whose food is appropriated entirely to the 

 increase of this, her powers of conception are 

 obstructed, and her young, neither during her 

 pregnancy, nor after their birth, can be fur- 

 nished by her with the nourishment necessary 

 to support them ; and sterility in the female, 

 and disorder and want of size and strength in 

 her progeny, must be the result. But after their 

 birth, the wants of nature in food and tempe- 

 rature, may be artificially supplied to the young, 

 and they may thus be reared, with all the appa- 

 rent qualities of their progenitors. 

 I obtained a sow pig, of a breed peculiar for their 

 propensity to fatten, from Mr. Hodgson. This 



