CROSSING. 1Q5 



CHAPTER YIII. 



Crossixg. 



The practice of crossing, like that of close breeding, 

 has its strong and its weak side. Substantial argu- 

 ments can be brought both in its favor and against it. 

 Judiciously practiced, it offers a means of procuring 

 animals for the hutcJier, often superior to and more 

 profitable than those of any pure breed. It is also ad- 

 missible as the foundation of a systematic and well 

 considered attempt to establish a new breed. Such 

 attempts, however, as they necessarily involve consid- 

 erable expense, and efforts continued during a long 

 term of years, will be rarely made. But when crossing 

 is practiced injudiciously and indiscriminately, and 

 especially when so done for the purpose of procuring 

 breeding animals, it cannot be too severely censured, 

 and is scarcely less objectionable than careless in-and-in 

 breeding. 



The following remarks, from the pen of W. C. Spoon- 

 er, V. S., are introduced as sound and reliable, and as 

 comprising nearly all which need be said on the subject 



