32 HISTORY OF QUADRUPEDS. 



from the same line, weakens the stock. This idea, 

 however rooted it may have been in the minds of 

 former practitioners, is now entirely set aside by 

 the modern practice of breeding, not from the same 

 line only, but from the same family: the sire and 

 the daughter, the son and the mother, the brother 

 and sister, are now permitted to improve their own 

 kind. This practice is well known under the term 

 of breeding in-and-in; and, in this way, the im- 

 provement of the several breeds have advanced 

 rapidly to a height unknown before in any age or 

 nation. 



The practice of letting out Bulls by the season 

 has contributed very materially towards the im- 

 provement of this valuable breed ; as by this 

 means, one Bull, instead of being useful to his 

 proprietor only, may, in a few years, extend the 

 benefits of his stock through a whole district; and 

 so fully are the stock-masters convinced of its 

 advantages, that eighty guineas have been given 

 for the use of a Bull for one season. Some Bulls 

 are in such estimation, as to leap at the extra- 

 ordinary price of five guineas a Cow : and it is 

 perhaps a circumstance w r orth mentioning, that Mr 

 Fow T ler, of Rollright, in Oxfordshire, in 1789, for 

 ten Bull calves, refused five hundred guineas.* 



* This valuable stock was sold off in March, 1791, at the following 

 enormous prices, viz. : 



Garrick, a five-years old Bull, 205 guineas. 

 Sultan, two years old, 210 ., 



Washington, two years old 205 ,, 



Young Sultan, a yearling Bull, 200 ,, 

 Two yearling Bulls, 245 ,, 



Brindled Beauty, a Cow, 260 ,, 



Washington's Mother, in calf, 185 ,, 

 Some of the Rams sold as high as 60 



