116 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



malady to which the horse is subject which is not hereditary. 

 If this is true of the equine, it can hardly fail to apply in some 

 degree to the bovine species. Seeiug that hereditary evil 

 qualities may be transmitted with almost as great facility as 

 good qualities, we cannot be too cautious in selecting for 

 breeding only animals of good health and vigor. 



Malformations and injuries from accident are closely allied 

 to disease, and are governed by the same laws, though not 

 invariably so. Law mentions the case of a cow having her 

 horn knocked off, which afterwards had three calves hornless 

 on the same side of the head. 



Interbreeding is a subject of no little importance. Mr. 

 Bates's views were these, that "to breed in-and-in from a bad 

 stock was ruin and devastation, yet that the practice may be 

 safely followed, within certain limits, when the parents so 

 related are descended from first-rate animals." For thirteen 

 years this celebrated breeder of Shorthorns bred closely in- 

 and-in, but during the next seventeen years, thrice introduced 

 fresh blood into his herd. 



Nathusius, a careful observer and a breeder himself, writes, 

 "from study and his own experience, he concludes that close 

 interbreeding is necessary to ennoble the stock ; but that in 

 effecting this the greatest care is necessary, on account of the 

 tendency to infertility and weakness." 



Darwin declares that there is high authority for asserting 

 that many more calves are born cripples from Shorthorns 

 than from other less closely interbred races of cattle. 



Thus I have presented, in a very incomplete way (for pages 

 might be filled on every subject mentioned), some of the 

 axioms of good breeding, theories they may be called by some ; 

 but unless they can be disproved by equally well-founded 

 arguments, must be accepted by the fair-minded. At any rate, 

 they present a vast field for research, inquiry and experiment, 

 which every wise breeder will enter into with the determination 

 of strengthening or weakening the principles laid down. 



I have in this article quoted largely from authorities, whose 

 opinions, based on careful observations and experiments, will, 

 I think, carry more weight and awaken more thought than any 

 simple essay ou the subject. 



J. D. W. French, Chairman. 



