114 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



reversion. He crossed a, Black Spanish cock with a white silk 

 hen ; one of the offspring was almost exactly like the wild 

 Gallus haiikiva. Another experiment is mentioned, in which 

 some West Highland cows were crossed with purely bred 

 Shorthorn bulls. The cows were of a red color, and the bulls 

 red, red and white, or dark roan. A considerable number of 

 the calves were white, or white with red ears, and he says, 

 it is highly probable that here the offspring reverted, in con- 

 sequence of the cross, to the color either of the aboriginal 

 parent species, or of some ancient and half-wild parent 

 breed. 



The same author writes : "As a general rule, crossed off- 

 spring in the first generation are nearly intermediate between 

 their parents ; but the grandchildren and succeeding genera- 

 tions continually revert, in greater or less degree, to one or 

 both of their progenitors." 



"With cross-breeds, the act of crossing in itself certainly 

 leads to the recovery of long-lost characters, as well as of 

 those derived from either parent-form." 



In speaking of latent characters, he observes, "We can 

 thus understand how, for instance, it is possible for a good 

 milking cow to transmit her good qualities through her male 

 offspring to future generations ; for we may confidently 

 believe that these qualities are present, though latent, in the 

 males of each generation." 



Agassiz has stated that " children are not only the children 

 of their father and mother, but they are the children of their 

 grandfathers and grandmothers ; they are the children of the 

 generations preceding them, so much that it is a well estab- 

 lished fact that very often children resemble their grandparents 

 more than they resemble their parents." 



Thus we see the importance of a good pedigree and the 

 value of a pure-bred ancestry. In my own experience, a case 

 of apparent reversion has occurred in. breeding Essex swine. 

 Although I had good authority for believing that all my animals 

 were descended from perfectly pure-bred stock, yet in a litter 

 of eight pigs one was white with black spots, the others were 

 entirely black. As the Improved Essex is supposed to have 

 some infusion of Chinese blood, this would, seem a probable 

 instance of breeding back to the black-and-white Chinese hog. 



