THE FORM OF ANIMALS. 23 



When the male is much larger than the female, the 

 efTspring is generally of an imperfect form. If the female 

 be proportionally larger, the offspiing is of an improved 

 form. For instance, if a well-formed large ram be put 

 to ewes proportionally smaller, the lambs will not be so 

 well shaped as their parents ; but if a small ram be put 

 to larger ewes, the lambs will be of an improved form. 



It is here worthy of remark that Nicholas Hankey Smith, who resided 

 a long time among the Arabs, in a work entitled " Observations on 

 Breeding for the Turf," gives as his opinion that colts bred in-and-in 

 show more blood in their heads, are of better form, and fit to start with 

 fewer sweats than the English turf-horsc ; but when the incestuous 

 intercourse has continued a few generations, he says, the animal de- 

 generates. 



This plan of breeding in-and-in, says Youatt farther, when speaking 

 of cattle : " has many advantages to a certain extent. It may be pursued 

 Until the excellent form and qualities of the breed are developed and 

 established. It was the source whence sprung the cattle and the sheep 

 of Bakewell, and the superior cattle of Colling — and to it must be traced 

 the speedy degeneracy, the absolute disappearance, of the new Leicester 

 or Bakewell cattle ; and in the hands of many an agriculturist, the im- 

 pairment of constitution and decreased value of the new Leicester sheep 

 and the Short-Horn beasts. It has therefore become a kind of principle 

 tvith the agriculturist to efiect some change in his stock every second or 

 <hird year — and that change is most conveniently effected by introducing 

 a new bull or ram. These should be as nearly as possible of the same 

 sort coming from a similar pasturage and climate, but possessing no 

 relationship, or at most a very distant one, to the stock to which he is 

 introduced" — and these remarks " apply to all descriptions of live-stock," 

 says Professor Johnston, author of the Farmer's Cyclopedia. 



This is the secret whereby Mr. George Patterson, of Maryland, 

 has not only kept up but improved the size and beauty of his North De- 

 vons. Every "two or three years," a new bull the best to be had in 

 England, is introduced to his cows. The neglect of this precaution, and 

 breeding in-and-in too closely, are the true reasons why we so rarely see 

 the descendants of imported stock in this country equal to the originals. 

 Too close breeding tells in Man as well as in beast ; hence the famous 

 lines of Lord Byron when speaking of the nobility : 



" They breed in-and-in as might be known, 



" Marrying their cousins, nay, their aunts and nieces, 

 " Which always spoils the breed, if it increases." 



But, after all, we must look closely to \he form of the parents as well 

 in Horses as cattle — for, let the world dispute as it may, whether " blood 

 IS everything," or "blood is nothing," — be the blood what it may, who 

 has ever seen, as Apperley asks, an instance of a misshapen horse and 

 ill-formed mare producing winners 1 — J. S. S.] 



38 • 



