124 PRODUCTION OF NEW RACES OR BREEDS. 



height of about 19 inches. It was found that the Greyhounds 

 could not support the fatigues of a long chase in this attenuated 

 atmosphere ; and before they could come up with their prey, they 

 lay down gasping for breath ; but these same animals have pro- 

 duced whelps, which have grown up, and which are not in the 

 least degree incommoded by the want of density in the air, but 

 run down the hares with as much ease as the fleetest of our races 

 in this country. 



111. By endeavouring, then, to develope from generation to 

 generation, a particular quality, or physical peculiarity, we may 

 carry it much further than it would have been possible to do at 

 first ; and we thus can create artificial races, of which the cha- 

 racters will only be effaced, when the opposite circumstances to 

 those which have occasioned these peculiarities, come to destroy 

 the effect of them. It is in this manner that we accomplish our 

 end, when a powerful interest gives perseverance to our efforts ; 

 and thus it is, that in the present day races of Sheep, Oxen, and 

 Horses have been produced, characterised by the most remark- 

 able peculiarities. It has been remarked, for instance, that 

 Sheep which present certain peculiarities of conformation, are 

 fattened much more easily than others ; and Bakewell, one of 

 those who have rendered the greatest services to English Agri- 

 culture, having taken care to cause the Sheep amongst which 

 these external characters were seen in a high degree, to breed with 

 each other, was able to create a race of great value in this 

 respect. The weight of the four hind quarters of the carcass of 

 the large Sheep of the Wurtemberg breed, which was intro- 

 duced into some of the provinces of France, as being particularly 

 good for the purposes of the butcher, was from 52 to 55 per 

 cent, of the total weight of the animal ; whilst in the English 

 Sheep of the Dishley or New Leicester breed, this proportion 

 was raised to 70 or 75 per cent. It is also known to Agricul- 

 turists, how much the fineness of the wool is increased by similar 

 care ; and how much, in this respect, our native breeds have been 

 improved by their mixture with the Merinos of Spain. 



112. Again, the different races of Horses, which are of so 

 high an interest to us, are also a proof of the influence of Man 



