

REARING AND FEEDING OF ANIMALS. 347 



When the nature of a farm allows, the most speedy and the best method 

 certainly of attaining the end is to change the stock, and to substitute females 

 of the improved one from which it is proposed to breed. In this manner the 

 purpose will be effected at once, without the labour or loss of time of improving 

 a defective stock. 



The second method is the retaining of the existing stock, and improving it 

 by a selection of the best individuals of the same breed. This is the method 

 which ought to be adopted if the breed already existing is sufficiently suited to 

 the natural circumstances of the farm, and to the method of cultivation which 

 can be pursued upon it. 



The third method is that of crossing, that is, the retaining of the females, 

 and the employing of males of a different breed. This method has often led 

 to disappointment, from the nature of the crosses attempted, especially where 

 the crosses have been violent, as between animals of very different characters. 

 The first cross in general will be good, but in breeding from the progeny of 

 this cross, expectation will often be disappointed. Not only do the good quali- 

 ties of the first cross not always remain in the progeny, but often there are 

 found in it defects which cannot be traced to the parents. 



This, however, generally arises from injudicious crossing, and from unac- 

 quaintance with the principle on which the crosses of different animals should 

 be conducted. When a cross is made, it should be with a male of a superior 

 breed; and in this case the first cross will be almost always a good animal. To 

 secure the full benefits of the cross, however, we shoulct not too hastily resort 

 to the males of the inferior stock, because it might be found, that, while we 

 had injured the original breed, we had not substituted a better in its stead. The 

 general rule, therefore, should be, to cover again the first cross with a supe- 

 rior male of the same breed, and so on, until the good character of that breed 

 became permanent in the progeny. This is said to be breeding up to the supe- 

 rior stock. 



In crossing, the essential characters of form are imprinted on the offspr 

 the male; and it is surprising in how great a degree this imprinting of better 

 characters takes place, when a male of superior l>? uipluyed. A first 



cross between a short-horned bull, for example, fully bred, and a very ordinary 

 cow, produces, not only often, but generally, a fine animal, with ;m extraordi- 

 nary aptitude to fatten. Many of the very fat animals that receive premiums 

 at the cattle-shows, are extreme crosses of this kind. But the benefit may end 

 with the progeny, if we do not again cover with a male of the same superior 

 breed, and so on until the good characters become permanent. 



When a breeder, then, is to improve kis stock bu crossing, he ought to select a 

 male of undoubtedly superior blood. And h- >houM not generally, alter the 

 first cross, resort to the males of the inferior breed, but to those of the su 

 one. until he has formed, as it were, a breed for himself. There are, indeed, 

 numerous cases in which a single mixture of better blood will do good, as with 

 those inferior breeds which'have no fixed characters. These will be improved 

 by even the slightest intermixture with the blood of a better race; and a farmer 

 who is in a district where this class of animals prevails, may safely avail him- 

 self of a good male, in the same manner as a breeder of horses would do, al- 

 though the stallion were of a different character from the native stock. The 

 cases where crossing of any kind is to be attempted with caution, are, when a 

 breed of established good characters, or of characters which fit it for the nature 

 of the country and the state of its agriculture, already exists. 



In crossing, then, the rule is, to breed from a male of superior stock; and, for- 

 tunately, in this country we have now a breed of such established character, 

 that no mistake can arise in the selection of males. These have been formed 

 to our hand, with all the care that art can bestow in improving the form of 

 feeding animals. There is no need, therefore, for those mistaken attempts at 

 crosses which were sometimes made with males of questionable characters. 

 We can predicate nothing securely of the progeny of such crosses as these, the 

 effect of which will probably be to destroy the good properties of either breed, 

 as the aptitude to yield milk of the Ayrshire, and the hardy and feeding quali- 

 ties of the Galloway. But in crossing with a breed so highly cultivated as the 

 short-horned, the breeder has the assurance that he will produce animals of 



