40 ON BREEDING AND REARING ANIMALS. 



want judgment or opportunity to correct such 

 defect, by employing other cattle of the same 

 breed, free from such, his cattle will degenerate, 

 as before explained. In the case of selection 

 from a small number, it is also to be observed, 

 that the selector too often chooses the weakest 

 male, because such appears of the most delicate 

 form, and nearest approaching to female sym- 

 metry ; and if this be continued for a few gene- 

 rations, it may be easily be supposed that such 

 a breed will dwindle, compared to one left to 

 the process of nature, in which the strongest 

 males driving off the weakest, are exclusively 

 employed for the propagation of the kind. 



From these observations, strengthened as they 

 may be by the long established practice among 

 breeders of race-horses, &c., the result appears 

 to be, that any deterioration from breeding in 

 and in, is not a necessary consequence, but a fault 

 in the judgment of the foeeder* 



A Letter by Mr. Joseph Robinson, published in 

 the Farmer's Journal, April \5th, 1816, in 

 answer to " A Norfolk Breeder's Queries "- 



QIC. 1. How were the Northamptonshire 

 sheep treated the first summer after going to 

 fold? 



