1839] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



119 



the parent which we must look to, as best calcu- 

 lated to improve the breed of any country. 



TIte art o( improving the breeds of dilTerent 

 animals was almost, if not altogether, unknown 

 to the ancients. Virgil, who seems to have paid 

 some attention to it, has stated things which ex- 

 perience has since taught us are erroneous. In 

 this i)art of the island it has yet to be introduced, 

 and we are forced to go to England for authori- 

 ties on the subject. A few oi' our countrymen 

 have indeed, of late years, come fourth, as it were 

 — and in this immber we must rank Mr. Stirling 

 of Keir, Mr. Robinson of Ladykirk, and Mr. 

 Rennie, jr. of Phantassie, who having seen the 

 value of improved slock, and of attending to pedi- 

 gree, or breeding from parents, " de bonne race,'''' 

 as the French well express it: but with the ex- 

 ception oi" these, and some lew others, we are yet 

 miserably behind. The very term "a great breed- 

 er," signifies two totally different things in Eng- 

 land and Scotland : in the former, it means a 

 judge, and one who delights in in)proved breeds ; 

 in tlie latter, a person who has a great number oi' 

 (commonly speaking) half-starved calves or mise- 

 rable lambs, and in whose stock we may see every 

 variety of shape and color. We have only to 

 look to any drove of Scotch beasts on the road, to 

 satisfy ourselves of the want of all care in our 

 breeders. The cattle are of all ditl'erent shapes, 

 some with horns, and some without ; and if you 

 inquire of the owner, you will find that he pur- 

 chased some of those dissimilar beasts, not li'om 

 diti'erent breeders, not in different districts, but 

 from the same farmer — and his own cattle in one 

 fair. How and why is this? Because our Scotch 

 farmer is ignorant of his own trade! They all 

 know and adtnif, that " breeding-in-and-in," or 

 " oure sib,"* as they call it, is bad; they know 

 the value of crossing, and they wish to cross, and 

 do so; but it is without judgment. A liirmer no 

 sooner hears that his neighbor has got a good 

 bull, most likely from a distance, than he says, "I 

 must have a breed of him," as he calls the first 

 offspring between his own cow and this bull ; and 

 the cow is put to this animal, although the one 

 slipuld be Galloway, and the other a short-horn : 

 thus his calves are so unlike, that, when his stock 

 is carried to market, they present that tag-rag ap- 

 pearance which I have mentioned before, and 

 which the best dealers are now rectifying to them- 

 selves for their own profit, by carefully classiuf; 

 them into horned or polled, &c. and thereby rais- 

 ing the value of the self-same animal from 10s. to 

 20s. a-head in the markets of the south, by giving 

 them that uniformity which the breeder ought to 

 have done. 



When 1 would praise the advantage of cross- 

 ''ing, 1 would have it then to be clearly understood, 

 that it is only to bring together animals, not near- 

 ly related, but always of the same breed, never 

 attempting to breed from a race-horse and a cart- 

 mare, or vice versa. Such a thing may do well 

 enough for once to get an insulated animal, but 

 will end in vexation, if attempted to be prolonged 

 info a line 



We know that crossing, even however ill-done, 

 is productive of good. It uniformly frees an ani- 

 mal from many of the weaknesses and maladies 

 to which tfiose bred in-and-in are subject, and al- 



* Nearly related. 



most invariably procures a much larger animal 

 than either of the parenis. That enlightened 

 gentlemen and accurate ol)server of everything 

 connected with animals, Sir John Sebright, whom 

 I shall ti-equenlly liave occasion to quote, says, " [ 

 have tried many expeiiments by breeding in-and- 

 in upon dogs, fowls, and pigeons; the dogs be- 

 come, from strong spaniels, weak and diminutive 

 lap-dogs ; the fowls become long in the legs, small 

 in I he body, and bad breeders." 



Mr, Bake well, that illustrious breeder, denied 

 this ; and was the first, I believe, who said that a 

 cross was unnecessary, that animals would not 

 degenerate by being bred in-and-in, &c. but let 

 us look to the result. His admirable breed of 

 sheep are fast going to decay ; they have even 

 now become small, and are, to a great degree, 

 what is termed soft sheep, i. e. liable to many com- 

 plaints. The malady to which sheep are most 

 subject, decay of the liver, attacks them very fre- 

 (juently, ana altogether, they make good the old 

 adage, of soon ripe soon rotten ; more quickly 

 coming to maturity than any animul we know, 

 and as speedily going to decay. I have seen the 

 wonderful effects produced by crossing, in reno- 

 vating this breed, having, for several years, been 

 in the habit of buying in a couple of scores of 

 Highland ewes, and putting them to a pure Bake- 

 well ram. They were always poor small things, 

 worth not tnore than from 3s. or 3s. 6d. to 6s. 

 each ; yet these ewes produced lambs which as- 

 tonished every one who saw them, and which 

 sold to the butcher at 10s. 6d. a-head. As to the 

 appearance of those lambs I shall have occasion to 

 s|)eak in another place. Did the limits of an essay 

 permit, 1 could bring many more instances to prove 

 this, my first position, that it is absolutely neces- 

 sary to shun breeding in-and-in; but, as i must 

 hasten to the main question, I shall only remark, 

 that the benefit of crossing extends even to the 

 vegetable creation, a fact which is now pretty 

 well known, and may easily be proved in the cul- 

 tivation of various plants. In none is it more 

 conspicuous than in the turnip. It is now some 

 years since it occurred to Mr. Gordon, larmer, at 

 Orrock, near Aberdeen, that, as tiie brassica tribe 

 easily tireed together, as it were, it might be pos- 

 sible to cross the rata baga with some of the other 

 sorts. He did so, and found that the crosses 

 which he had got were far superior in size to 

 either of the sorts he put together, and also very 

 hardy as to standing frost. I know another 

 small farmer, who, after a very severe winter, 

 tried puttinir red-top and Norfolk while turnips to- 

 gether, which are both very easily destroyed by 

 fi-osts. From these he jirocured a cross which 

 stood the frost uncommonly well, and grew to a 

 large size on poor soil. Bui to proceed to selec- 

 tion. 



In this term I would include, not only the choice 

 of two well-made parents, but the guarding care- 

 fully that the same defects, however slight, did 

 liot occur in both ; lor it is a fiict, stated by Sir 

 John Sebright, and which has uiiilbrmly been 

 proved by my own experience, that it is not al- 

 ways by putting tlie best male to the best female 

 that the best produce will be obtained ; for should 

 ihey both have a tendency to the same defect, al- 

 though, in ever so slight a degree, it will, in gene- 

 ral, preponderate so much in tlie produce as to 

 lender it of little value. 



