STOCK. 115 



Prepotency is a subject which should receive the careful 

 consideration of every farmer who, although not a breeder of 

 thoroughbreds, is a raiser of stock. On this point Law 

 expresses his views so well that I shall quote liberally : ' Pre- 

 potency is less frequently the prerogative of the individual 

 than of the breed which has been bred long and carefully to a 

 particular type. Hence the great value of Shorthorns and 

 other pure races in imparting to other breeds, with which they 

 may be crossed, their own qualities to a proportionately greater 

 extent than the share they have had in begetting them." 

 " Crossing a pure, well-fixed breed with one whose characters 

 are less fixed and constant, will bring the impure breed very 

 quickly to the standard of the pure, and this will be a change 

 for the better or the worse, according as this pure breed excels 

 or comes below the other in personal qualities. Thus breeding 

 our common cows with a poor aboriginal race of any country 

 will deteriorate them rapidly, while crossing them with Short- 

 horns, Ayrshires or Dutch, will with equal rapidity improve 

 them. Again, crossing these improved breeds with a poor 

 but strongly fixed and prepotent breed will be at the risk of 

 obtaining a reversion to a more primitive and still poorer t3^pe 

 of the race. Crossing thus becomes an art, whose principles 

 must be studied and acted on in order to succeed." 



There are many well authenticated cases where the imagina- 

 tion of the mother seems to have left its impression on the 

 offspring. It is related, on authority of Col. Bryant, Fair- 

 haven, that a number of back cows, sent to an island, had by 

 accident a dun steer introduced among them, and that their 

 calves were without exception of a dun color. Other instances 

 of the same kind, especially among the lower animals, might 

 be mentioned. 



The effiect of the first pregnancy on succeeding ones is a 

 principle supported on the authority of Agassiz and others, 

 and by many well-known instances which confirm their state- 

 ments. I have noticed particularly in breeding dogs that the 

 first pregnancy has had a most noticeable influence on after- 

 progeny. This should be a warning to careful breeders not to 

 allow their heifers to have connection with any but superior 

 bulls. 



Youatt, in speaking of disease, says there is scarcely a 



