CROSSING , 



109 



to neutralize them ; and with which, in fact, we would 

 rather dispense. To cross, as Mr Cleghorn remarks, 

 any mountain breed with Leicester rams, with a view to 

 obtain a propensity to fatten at an early age, would be 

 attended with an enlargement of size, which the moun- 

 tain pasture could not support, and the progeny would 

 be a mongrel race, not suited to the pastures of either of 

 the parent breeds. The folly of such a proceeding is 

 beautifully shown in the failure of the attempts made, 

 some years ago, to better the fleece of the mountaiti 

 sheep, in the South of Scotland. To effect this desira- 

 ble end, rams were brought from the Cheviot range of 

 hills, and the consequences were, as described by Mr 

 William Hogg, of Stobbo, in the Quarterly Journal of 

 Agriculture^ just what a preliminary consideration of 

 the existing circumstances would have proved to be 

 unavoidable. '* The independent habits of the moun- 

 tain flocks were lost, and a mongrel progeny, of a 

 clumsy figure, occupied the lowest and warmest of the 

 pastures. As they were very improper subjects to 

 breed from, they were often a drug in the market : 

 but the store-master had no other resource, but to 

 struggle on against the opposition which the animal 

 itself made to the change, and, also, against the influ- 

 ence of bad seasons, in order to get the influence of the 

 Cheviot breed fully established. * * * With its shaggy 

 coat the animal lost its bold independent look, its stout 

 shape, its unvitiated taste, and its sound constitution. 

 A course of severe winters too occurred during the time 

 of changing, while every property calculated to resist 

 privation and fatigue was unconfirmed in the progeny \ 

 and, in consequence, the ravages by rot, and poverty, 



