THE GENESEE FARAIER. 



93 



tiiat are iinperfectW nourished during their growth have 

 their bones often disproportion-itel v large. A €■ mpact, 

 rouiid made body, a deep, full chest, a broad loin, full 

 Hank and straight back, a small head and clean chaps, with 

 fine tapering neck, limbs and bones not coarse and large, 

 a soft but not thick skin, with soft and tine hair, are among 

 the chief marks of a good kine. 



It has been generally supposed that the breed of ani- 

 mals is im|)roved by tl;e largest males. This opinion has 

 done considerable mischief, and probably would have done 

 more, if it had not been counteracted by the desire of se- 

 lecting animals of the best form and proportions, which 

 are rarely to be met with in those of the largest size. 

 Experience has proved that crossing has only succeeded, 

 in an eminent degree, in those instances in which the fe- 

 males were larger than in the usual proportion of females 

 to males, and that it has generally failed when the males 

 were disproportionately large. If a well-formed, large 

 buck be put to small ewes, the Iambs wiU not be so well 

 shaped as their parent ; but if a good small buck be put 

 to larger ewes, the lambs will be of an improved form. 

 The improvement depends on this principle : that the 

 power of the female to supply her oft'spring with nourish- 

 ment, is in proportion to her size and to the power of 

 nourishing herself from the excellence of her constitution. 

 The size of the foetus is generally in proportion to that of 

 the female parent ; and, therefore, when she is dispropor- 

 ttonally small, the quantity of nourishment is dispropor- 

 tionally small, and her offspring has all the disproportions 

 of a starveling ; but when the female, from her size and 

 good constitution, is more adequate to the nourishment of 

 a fcetus of a male smaller than herself, the growth will be 

 proportiona-ely larger. The larger female has also a 

 greater quantity of milk, and her offspring is more abun- 

 dantly supplied with nourishment after birth. To produce 

 the most perfectly-formed animal, abundant nourishment 

 is necessary from the earliest period of its existence until 

 its growth is complete. 



To obtain animals with large lungs, crossing is the 

 most expeditious method, because well-formed females 

 may be selected from a variety of a large size, to be 

 put to a well-formed male that is rather smaller. By 

 such a mode of crossing, the lungs and heart become 

 larger in consequence of a peculiarity in the circulation 

 of the fcEtus, which causes a larger proportion of the blood, 

 under such circumstances, to be distributed to the lungs 

 than any other parts of the body ; and as the shape and 

 size of the chest depends upon that of the lungs, hence 

 arises the remarkably large chest which is produced by 

 crossing with females that are larger than the males. But 

 this practice must be limited, for it may be carried to such 

 an extent that the bulk of the body might be so dispro- 

 portioued as to the size of the limbs as to prevent the ani- 

 mal from moving with sufficient facility, so that, where ac- 

 tivity is required, this practice must not be extended so far 

 as in those which are intended for the food of man. The 

 kinds of animals selected for cross-breeding ought never 

 to be of very different habits and sizes ; for notwithstand- 

 ing the confessed advantages derived from cross-breeding, 

 vet great or sudden changes are highly improper — that 

 Laving often been found injurious to the health and charac- 

 ter of the stock. The use of the bucks of the pure Dish- 

 ley or BakeweU stock has, with several coarse flocks of 

 sheep, been attended with no sensible advantage, owing to 

 this cause — the characters and habits of the breeds being 

 so widely dissimilar. Whenever, then, cross-breeding is 

 attempted, care ought always to be taken to do it gradu- 

 ally, and to rear the progeny in a proper manner ; and 

 when the matching is conducted progressively, and with 

 due attention to the diversity of habit in the animals, it 

 succeeds well — the chief art being to begin gradually at 

 first — and in process of time, as the blood of one family is 

 diminished that of the other will be increased, till improve- 

 ment to the degree wished for be attained by gradual ap- 

 proximation. 



The great improvement of the breed of horses in Eng- 

 land arose from crossing with those diminutive stallions, 

 Barbs and Arabians ; and the introduction of Flemish 

 mares was the source of improvement in the larger breed 

 of cart horses. The form of the swine has also been 



greatly improved by crossing with the small Chinese boar. 

 But when it became the fashion in London to drive large 

 bay horses in carriages, the farmers in Yorkshire put their 

 mares to much larger horses than usual, and thus did inn- 

 nite mischief to their breed, by producing a race of small- 

 chested, long-legged, large-boned, worthle s animals ; and 

 a .iuiilar project was adopted in Normandy, for the pur- 

 p se of enlarging their breed of horses — the use of the 

 Hols ein stallion — by which the best breed of horses i.i 

 France would have been spoiled, had not the farmers dis- 

 covered their mistake in time, by observing the offspring 

 much inferior in form to that produced by their own horses. 



IXTRODUCTIOX OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



TiiE following account of the introduction of do- 

 mestic animals into this country, has been condensed 

 from the Census Report. It furnishes a clue to the 

 origin of our native cattle: 



The first animals brought to America from Eiu-ope, were 

 imported by Columbus in his second voyage, in 1493. He 

 left Spain as admiral of seventeen ships, bringing a collec- 

 tion of European trees, plants and seeds of various kinds, 

 a number of horses, a bull and several cows. 



The first horses brought into any part of the territory at 

 present embraced in the United States, were landed in Flo- 

 rida, by Cabeca be Vaca, in 1527, forty-two in number, all 

 of which perished or were otherwise killed. The next im- 

 port;! tion was also brought to Florida, by De Soto, in 1539, 

 which consisted of hor es and swine, among which were 

 thirteen sows ; the progeny of the latter soou increasing to 

 several hundred. 



The Portugese took cattle and swine to Newfoundland 

 and Nova Scotia in the year 15.53. Thirty years after, they 

 had multiplied so abundantly, that Sir Richard Gilbert 

 attempted to land there to obtain supplies of cattle and 

 hogs for his crew, but was wrecked. 



Swine and other domestic animals were brought over to 

 Arcada, by ^l. L'Escarbot, a French lawyer, in 1604, the 

 year that country was settled. In IGOS, the French exten- 

 tended their settlement into Canada, and soon after intro- 

 duced various animals. 



In 1609, three ships from England landed at Jamestown, 

 in Virginia, with many immigrants, and the following do- 

 mestic animals, namely : six mares, one horse, six hundred 

 swine, five hundred domestic fowls, with a few sheep and 

 goats. Other animals had been previously there. In 1611, 

 Sir TnoMAS Gates brought over to the same settlement 

 one hundred cows, besides other cattle. In I6l0, an edict 

 was issued in Virginia, prohibiting the killing of domestic 

 animals of any kind, on penalty of death to the accessory, 

 and twenty-four hours whipping to the concealer. As 

 early as the year 1617, the swine had multiplied so rapidly 

 in the colony, that the people were obliged to pallisade 

 •Jamestown, to prevent being overrun with them. In 1627. 

 the Indians near the settlement fed upon hogs, which had 

 become wild, instead of game. Every family in Virginia, 

 at that time, which had not an abundance of tame hogs 

 and poultry, was considered very poor. In 1648, some of 

 the settlers had a good stock of bees. In 1667 sheep and 

 mares were forbidden to be exported from the province. 

 By the year 1723, or before, sheep had somewhat multi- 

 plied, and yielded good fleeces. 



The first animals introduced into Massachusetts were by 

 Edwaed Wikslow, in 1624, consisting of three heifers anil 

 a bull. In 1636, twelve cows were sent to Cape Ann. In 

 1G29, one hundred and fifteen cattle were imported into 

 the plantations on Massachusetts Bay, besides some horses 

 and mares, and several ponies, and forty-one goats. They 

 were mostly ordered by Fkaxcis Higginson, formerly 

 of Leicestershire, whence several of the animals were 

 brought. 



The first importation into New York was made from 

 Holland, by the "West India company, in 1625, comprising 

 one hundred and three animals, consisting of horses and 

 cattle for breeding, besides as many sheep and hogs as wa* 

 thought expedient. 



