CATTLE-BIlEEDIKO.l CATrLl', AND TllKlli V A IvI i: 11 i:.S. [CATTLE-DnEEDINQ. 



This power arises more from individual skill 

 than from science. Whatever i)hy8ioK),i,Me:il 

 principles arc involved, they are beat discovered 

 by the facts known to the breeder, and teach 

 liini little in the niaiiac^einent of his business. 

 The perseverance and skill, tiie powers of ob- 

 servation and discrimination possessed by some 

 breeders, have doubtless been the cause of their 

 success, and led to England's becoming pro- 

 eminent for food-producing animals ; for in no 

 otiier part of the known world can it be said 

 that there is anything like such specimens to 

 be found, either for producing flesh, milk, 

 butter, or cheese. To watch pliysiological ten- 

 dencies, and avail themselves of all discoveries, 

 was the practice of breeders long anterior to 

 scientific research. Emulating the skill of the 

 wily progenitor of the Jewish race, and intelli- 

 gentlv perceiving what was required. Colling 

 and Bakewell attempted, and attained, the art 

 of producing cattle and sheep ' riug-straked, 

 spotted, and speckled,' at pleasure. Seeing, 

 also, the necessity of economising food, they set 

 about cultivating those animals which came to 

 maturity early, and thus produced a much 

 larger quantity of animal food from the same 

 amount of vegetation. Knowing that fat was 

 an element favoured in a northern clime, they 

 endeavoured to obtain animals with a tendency 

 to secrete it in large quantities. In order to 

 do this, they observed the qualities indicative 

 of these tendencies ; and, knowing that it is 

 true in physiology, as in mathematics, that like 

 produces like, they selected and bred from 

 animals possessing them, until they stamped 

 their qualities permanently and invariably on 

 their produce. With these they managed to 

 combine their usual concomitants, symmetry 

 and beauty. Hence the origin of our flocks of 

 Leicester sheep, and our herds of short-horn 

 cattle, so intimately interwoven, even in their 

 mortality, with the proud national boast of the 

 ' Eoast Beef of Old England.' " 



In all animals there are certain distinctions 

 or differences, which, in some individuals, are so 

 strikingly marked as to lift them far above 

 their congeners in particular excellences. Sup- 

 posing, therefore, that two of these, a male and 

 female, were chosen for breeding jiurposes ; it is 

 very likely that the breeder would expect their 

 ofispriug to inherit the greater number, if not 

 all, of those remarkable qualities for which 



their progenitors were dintinguished. This, 

 however, would j)robal)iy not bo the caso, and 

 the breeder would sulfcr great disappoint- 

 ment. It is from a knowledge of tluH fact, 

 that many a breeder has resigned the hope of 

 obtaining a good breed, and has ceased to per- 

 severe in his object. But he ought to remem- 

 ber that the principles of bn-eding are now 

 pretty well ascertained, and require only 

 patience and perseverance to carry them out 

 to a success. Although tlie animals ho had 

 selected might have apparently been perfect in 

 themselves, yet one of them, the cow, no 

 doubt was an accidental product of excellence, 

 and not the offspring of a reputable ancestry. 

 Iler progen}', therefore, exhibited the charac- 

 ters of her parents rather than those of her- 

 self. This is the reason why she did not pro- 

 duce her own form and likeness ; but tha 

 bi'eeder should have continued to select the 

 best that he was able to nrocure ; he should 

 have persevered in his path, and, sooner or 

 later, he would have had his pains rewarded by 

 obtaining a breed which would have fulfilled 

 the expectations with which be set out on his 

 breeding experiments. It ought always to be 

 borne in mind, that the obtaiument of a breed 

 of stock is not the labour of a month or a 

 year, but of a lifetime. If it be the object of 

 a breeder to produce a herd of cattle or a 

 flock of sheep with some peculiar tendency, he, 

 himself, may never so far accomplish it as to 

 reap any real advantage from it, but his sons 

 may, provided he has pursued his plans judi- 

 ciously. Even in two or three generations, 

 there is no certainty that the tendency which, 

 he wished to impart would be established. 

 " There are not only limits, therefore, to the 

 mathematical axiom that like produces like, 

 modified by vital powers with which the 

 breeder has to deal, but we think there is a 

 principle deeper still — one little noticed by 

 writers on breeding stock, yet one which all 

 our great breeders knew and practised — viz., 

 that some one animal has much more power of 

 transmitting his qualities tiian others." The 

 remarkable results of the Ceilings in caLtle- 

 breeding, were really due either to the skill 

 they had in seeking their transmissive power, 

 or to the accident of obtaining, by chance, an 

 animal (their bull Ilubback) who possessed it 

 in a remarkable degree. Tnu?, in brjcding 



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