1839] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



121 



my mind is by far the strontrest, is color; next, I 

 would place smallness of the head and ears; in 

 the horse, ox. and sheep, prominence of the eye ; 

 in all wideness of the chest, tendency to fatten, 

 early maturity, tranquility, and love to man, or 

 rather dependance on man. 



Let us now proceed regularly, and commence 

 with the horse, as the most noble as well as the 

 most useful animal. The influence that the male 

 has on this class of animals is the most striking. 

 Everyone must recollect how, in blood-horses, 

 the color of the sire goes throughout the progeny, 

 and, in a dealer's slable, every grey is a Delphini 

 or a Sir Harry Dinsdale, every black a Sorcerer 

 or a Thunderbolt, and so on. While you hear 

 people constantly remark that such a horse can be 

 nothing but a get of such a one — what is this but 

 to say, the color and appearance of the male goes 

 throughout the produce ? In work-horses it is the 

 same. A very strong instance of this was visible 

 some years ago in the county of Kincardine. 

 Here Ihere was not, I suppose, one single mare 

 to be found of a chesnut-color, when Mr. Barclaj', 

 of Ury, brought down a Suffolk punch, of a bright 

 red chesnut-color, and in a few years plenty of 

 chesnuts were to be found. A few years after- 

 wards, a dun or slate-colored stallion gained the 

 prize from the Kincardine Agricultural Associa- 

 tion ; when he came into the country, dun-horses 

 were very rare, now they are to be found every- 

 where. In the county of Fife, some years ago, a 

 horse called Sportsman, found his way from York- 

 shire, and covered a vast number of mares, parti- 

 cularly those belonging to the farmers, which at 

 that time were either black or grey. This horse 

 was a rich dark brown, with a tanned muzzle, and 

 he instantly made a very large proportion of horses 

 of that favorite color; and what is still more re- 

 markable, he was himself one of the best trotters 

 ever seen, and his progeny were so also, so that 

 the fanners talking of a good trotter, would say, 

 " O yes, he is a Sportsman." Sir Robert Dick, a 

 few years ago, purchased a work-mare, whirth I 

 happened to know the breed of lor several genera- 

 tions. She was black, very large, and coarse; 

 eyes small, head and ears large, and very rough 

 at the heels. This mare was put to Caleb Quo- 

 tem, a beautiful bay horse, with much of what 

 dealers call gaiety. I saw the produce; it was 

 bright bay, with no hair at the heels, the eyes 

 large, the head and ears small, and altogether the 

 produce had put on the appearance of a blood- 

 horse. Here the dam was of the cart breed. Let 

 us look the other way : Mr, George Harley 

 Drummond had two or three thorough-bred mares, 

 which had thrown foals, small in size and deficient 

 in bone to a blood-horse. He put them to a cart- 

 horse, they instantly produced stout boned colts, 

 with much hair at heel, and altogether like the 

 sire. In the year 1821, I purchased a very neat 

 small mare lor a relation of mine, which had a 

 foal at her loot by a cart-horse ; this foal turned 

 out to all intents a very good cart-horse. The 

 mare was afterwards put for three seasons to Ku- 

 tuzof, and the foals were in all appearance like 

 blood-horses. 



The late General Ayton, of Inchdairnie, a great 

 many years ago, sent down a horse fiom England 

 to his property in File, which covered the country 

 mares in his vicinity [at that time, I am informed, 

 very poor beasts,] and produced such wonderful 

 Vol.. VII— 16 



effects on the breed in that neighborhood, as may 

 be seen this very day; the horses in that quarter be- 

 ing the best in the country, and particularly remark- 

 able for width of chest, docility in work, and alto- 

 gether fine animals. Last year [182-1] I chanced 

 to see the tenantry of a gentleman, who has the 

 district which lies along the banks of the river 

 Avon, in Aberdeenshire, driving his winter store 

 of coals. The horses struck me as being liir above 

 the common run of those in the Highland glens, 

 and in fact first rate, compared with what ten 

 years before I had seen in the carts of the self-same 

 farmers. I was at first somewhat at a loss to find 

 out how so great a change had taken place, as I 

 knew that tlie land in that part of the county waa 

 all held by small farmers, who neither could nor 

 would purchase large high priced mares to breed 

 from, (ar less those horses then in my view. I 

 soon found, on investigating the matter, that the 

 whole change had been brought about by good, 

 stallions ; and in this way : The different agricul- 

 tural associations in the north have, for many 

 years, been in the practice of offijring large pre- 

 miums lor stallions, which brought troops of fine 

 horses from the west of Scotland. After the best 

 had been picked out for the prize, the rest were 

 set adrift; and these horses, dispersed over the 

 country, of late years, from the badness of the 

 times and an overstock of them, covered at any 

 price the farmer pleased to offer. Thus good 

 horses wandered into their glen, to their very 

 doors, and at such a price as these men could givej 

 the result was what I have stated. 



In the horse, then, it seems clear that it is to 

 the male we must look for improvement. Not 

 that I would be supposed to assert that the whole 

 improvement can be brought about a/ once by the 

 male ; that, if a man were to put a Shetland pony 

 to Eclipse — such a one, for example, as "The 

 Great Unknown " has been pleased to mount Mr. 

 Yellowlees on — were the little beast, from which 

 the agriculturists' legs dangled, put, I say, to 

 Eclipse, no one would hope to procure a racer ; 

 nor can we think that a Lincolnshire black, and a 

 Highland garron, taken out of a peat cart, will 

 produce an animal fit for a London dray ; but by 

 repetition the end will be produced. 1 once put 

 the question of the Highland Society to a very 

 able man who fills a chair in one of our univer- 

 sities, and who is an observer of nature cf no or- 

 dinary cast, and who also, li'om his profession, (a 

 medical man) may be supposed to be a good judge. 

 His answer instantly was, "The male, without 

 all doubt, but (added he,) you must have a fijmale 

 capable of developing the good properties of the 

 male, otherwise a good male will be thrown 

 away." 



I would next look a little at the influence the 

 male has on the ox. Here, although I still see the 

 male have by far the greatest influence, I would 

 say that there was a shade of diflerence, perhaps 

 five per cent, less than in the horse. The cow 

 appears to be an animal whose progeny is often 

 much afl^ected by her imaginaiion durimr the lime 

 of conception, or rather during the period when 

 she is in season. We have the most ancient, as 

 well as the highest authority for this, in the peeled 

 rods of Jacob ; and from what my own experience, 

 as well as the information of trustworthy men, has 

 taught me, I am inclined to think that the calf 

 very often takes after the beast that has been jump- 



