108 



IMPROVEMENT OF THE BREEDS* 



can result from breeding in-and-in, yet appears to have 

 in a manner preferred the preferable practice of broea* 

 ing from different families of the same race ; as he, for 

 many years, hired his rams from Mr Bakewell, at a 

 time when other breeders were paying a liberal price 

 for his own valuable animals. This is of all methods 

 deservedly the best, as the males, which are inter- 

 changed, have always had shades of difference im- 

 pressed upon them, by various soils and treatment, so 

 that the defects of each family have a good chance to 

 be counteracted by the perfections of the other. By 

 this means the bad points are gradually exhausted, and 

 their valuable properties as gradually heightened. 

 Breeders have been much aided in the furtherance of 

 this desirable plan, by the rearing of superior rams 

 having become, of late years, a separate pursuit. The 

 letting of them out to distant parts of the country has 

 long been a branch of this speculation ; diffusing some 

 of the most valuable points of particular breeds, and 

 leading to a spirit of competition. The practice has 

 been reprobated, but, I presume, rather hastily ; for with 

 all its attendant evils, such as leading to deception, by 

 what is termed the making up of rams, it possesses 

 excellencies which will, I hope, lead to its continuance. 

 (90.) Crossing. — The only other method of improv- 

 ing a breed is by crossing two distinct races, one of 

 which possesses the properties it is desirable to acquire, 

 and wants the defects we wish to remove. This, how- 

 ever, is a measure not to be recommended, and only to 

 be resorted to when neither of the others will do ; for 

 it is scarcely possible to obtain the desirable properties 

 mthout at the same lime imparting qualities suflBcient 



