123 



FARMERS' R E G I S T E 11 , 



[No. 2 



ing on the cow, (whether ox or cow,) previous to 

 her being taken to the male. One of the most in- 

 telligent breeders 1 have ever met with in Scot- 

 land, Mr. Mustard,* an extensive farmer on Sir 

 James Carnegie's estate in Angu?, told me a sin- 

 gular Jact in regard to what I have now slated. 

 One of his cows chanced to come into season 

 while pasturing on a field which was bounded by 

 that of his neighbors; out of which field an ox 

 jumped, and went wish the cow until she was 

 brought iiome to the bull. The ox was white with 

 black spots, and horned. Mr. Mustard had not a 

 horned beast in his possession, nor one with any 

 white on it. Nevertheless, the produce of the fol- 

 lowing spring was a black and white calf with 

 horns. 1 have tvvice had pure Ayrshire cows, 

 which are uniformly what is called red and white, 

 with horns. The first of those I put to a brown 

 bull without horns ; the produce was very dark 

 red, without any white, and polled. The next cow 

 was put to a jet black bull with horns. The first 

 produce was dark red, without any white, and the 

 next was jet black, and also without any white ; 

 and in both cases the make of the progeny took 

 greatly after the sire. On settling in the north of 

 Scotland as a farmer, I soon perceived that one of 

 the greatest defects in the cattle was a tendency 

 to be knock-kneed behind, and in mj' endeavors to 

 get rid of this, I procured a bull li-om the south of 

 Scotland, free li-om that defect, and with him 

 crossed the best looking cows of the country. I 

 instanll}' got rid of that narrowness behind observ- 

 able in all cattle where no attention has been paid 

 to the breed ; and, in a {"ew years, by drafting such 

 queys as did not please me, and breeding only 

 from good shaped ones, 1 made a breed for my- 

 self, which I had done before I knew if, for, hav- 

 ing one season lost almost all my own calves, I 

 was, in consequence of this misfortune, forced to 

 buy in calves. These were treated in the same 

 way as to food, &c., as my own, yet those from my 

 own cows soon shot far a-head of them, both in 

 size and condition ; and on examination of the two 

 sets of animals, an evident superiority of ibrm ex- 

 isted in those of my own, especially in the small- 

 ness and beauty of the head, with a prominent 

 eye; and, a fad not hitherto mentioned, that of 

 the tail being one-half less as to thickness than in 

 the unimproved breed, while a wide chest, (that 

 unerring sign of a good and quick feeder,) was 

 very conspicuous.! It would seem that horns had 

 been given to the cow by nature, and that the 

 polled breed have been procured by selection of 

 eome of those varieties we so often see, as 1 ob- 

 serve that it more Irequenily occurs, when a poll- 

 ed bull is put to a horned cow, that the produce 

 resembles the mother in that particular, than when 

 a horned bull is put to a polled cow, when horns 



* This gentleman's stock are all jet black and polled, 

 and so remarkably alike, that they show much care in 

 attending to the breed. 



t "An observation which Dr. Jenner made to me 

 about ten years ago, (the truth of which has been since 

 confirmed by my own experience,) that no animal 

 whose chest was narrow could easily be made fat, 

 applies particularly to the Merino sheep, which are 

 in general contracted in that part, and is well worth 

 the attention of those who wish to improve this breed." 



Sir J. Sebright. 



are almost always the consequence. f A great 

 many years ago, the present Sir Alexander Ram- 

 say, of Fasque, brought a lew of the Lancashire 

 cattle to Scotland, a breed then much in lashion, 

 and, as every one knows, remarkable lor having 

 uncommonly wide spreading horns, and all with 

 some white, especially on I he back. These cattle 

 were intermixed with the cows of the country ; 

 and when Sir Alexander came to his estate, the 

 cattle were all horned. About that time the polled 

 or dodded cattle came greatly into vogue in An- 

 gus ; and Sir Alexander purchased, from time to 

 time, jet black polled bulls, so that in a short time 

 all his cows were of this sort. Nevertheless, every 

 year, even to this day, one or two of the calves 

 "cry back" to the Lancashire, having white, and 

 homes ; and, what is singular, it is almost invari- 

 ably in the male that this lakes place. 



An instance ol the influence of the male in the 

 progeny of the cow is narrated by Bewick, the na- 

 tural historian. He is treating of the original 

 breed of wild cattle, which still exists in a lew- 

 parks belonging to noblemen in the norih of Eng- 

 land, and in one or two places in Scotland. They 

 are unilbrmly pure white, with black, or sometimes 

 red ears and noses, and always extremely wild 

 and fierce. At Chillingham castle, in Northum- 

 berland, says Bewick, cows used frequently to be 

 turned into the park when in season, which were 

 covered by the wild bull ; and what is strange, the 

 produce from all those cows were uniformly white, 

 with red ears and noses, and greatly partook of the 

 character and qualities of the wild bull. Eere, 

 then, is a very strong proof of the influence of the 

 male parent, and others equally sirong could be 

 quoted, did 1 not think it better to pass on to an- 

 other animal, the sheep. 



Here the influence of the male parent is most 

 striking. I have stated in a former part of this 

 essay, thatl have been in the habit of purchasing 

 a couple of scores of highland ewes every year, to 

 put to the Bakewell ram. Let us look a little at 

 the characlerisiics of every breed in a wild, or at 

 least nearly wild state. We find them muscular, 

 active, restless in quest of food, ever in motion, 

 and refusing to lay on fnt.f Such I found the 

 highland ewes; they were all small, with black 

 legs and faces, and had horns. On being put to 

 the Bakewell, they produce lambs of a totally dif- 

 ferent breed from themselves, all having the great- 

 est tendency to get fat, the wild, wiry appearance 

 of the Highlanders being entirely gone ; and in its 

 place we have a round fleshy animal, resting peace- 

 ably in the fields, the desire to break over fences, 

 having likewise disappeared ; and what is remark- 

 able, not a single lamb is to be found with black 

 legs, or a black face, and scarcely one with any 

 sort of horn,§ while all are of a very large size. 

 They thrive remarkably well, any that 1 have al- 

 lowed to grow up as an experiment; and I have 

 always found them much more free from disease 

 than either the Bakewell or the black- fliced sheep, 



I An old French writer on agricultural subjects im- 

 agines that polled cattle are. degenerated. He says, 

 " Mene en Ecosse on trouve la race tres petite, et lort 

 souvent sans cornes." 



I Look at the hare and the goat, however well fed, 

 they will refuse to lay on fat. 



§ Some few have a sort of shrivelled horn, which 

 drops off, or more commonly they rub them off in the 

 autumn. 



