t 



126 IMPROVEMENT OF THE BREEDS. 



from a youn^ male and an old female will in general 

 be feminine, while that from an old male and a young 

 female will generally be masculine ; and it has been 

 proposed to turn this, apparently a law of nature, to 

 account, in the management of flocks, as it must often 

 be of consequence to obtain, at will, a considerable in- 

 crease of the sex most wanted. On this subject there 

 will be found an interesting paper in the first number 

 of the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, entitled, 

 " A method of obtaining a greater number of One Sex 

 at the option of the Proprietor, in the Breeding of Live- 

 stock," and from this I extract the following : — 



" In the Annales de V Agriculture Frantaise, Vols, 

 xxxvii. and xxxviii., some very interesting experiments 

 are recorded, which have lately been made in France, 

 on the breeding of hve-stock. M. Charles Girou de 

 Buzareingues proposed, at a meeting of the Agricultu- 

 ral Society of Severac, on the 3d of July, 1826, to 

 divide a flock of sheep into two equal parts, so that a 

 greater number of males or females, at the choice of 

 the proprietor, should be produced from each of them. 

 Two of the members of the society offered their flocke 

 to become the subjects of his experiments, and the 

 results have now been communicated, which are in 

 accordance with the author's expectations. 



** The first experiment was conducted in the follow- 

 ing manner : — He recommended very young rams t« 

 be put to the flock of ewes from which the proprietoi 

 wished the greater number of females in their offspring 

 and also, that during the season when the rams were 

 with the ewes, they should have more abundant pasture 

 than the other ; while to the flock from which the pro- 



