IMPROVEMENT OF BREEDS. 109 



breeders with reference to their qualities as milkers has been 

 the establishment of a permanent breed distinguished probably 

 above all others as dairy cows. So the sheep breeders of 

 England, having the production of mutton as their principal 

 object, have produced the New Leicester, the South-Down, and 

 the New Oxfordshire breeds, distinguished for form, size, flavor, 

 and fattening qualities ; while the Spanish and German breed- 

 ers of Merinos, caring only for the wool, have given their breeds 

 pre-eminently excellent fleeces. Breeding carefully for a few 

 generations with a distinct purpose in view, will not fail to pro- 

 duce astonishing and satisfactory results. 



" The alteration," Sir John Seabright says, " which may be 

 made in any breed of animals by selection can hardly be con- 

 ceived by those that have not paid some attention to the sub- 

 ject." 



To breed in the most successful manner, the male and female 

 should be taken when they are in the highest state of health, 

 and when all the powers and attributes which are wished for 

 and which it is designed to propagate are in the most complete 

 order and state of perfection. 



II.-IN-AND IN BBEEDING. 



It is a well-established fact in human physiology that the in- 

 termarriage of near relatives tends to both physical and mental 

 degeneracy. Analogy would lead us to infer that the same 

 results must follow close breeding among the lower animals ; 

 and facts, we think, prove conclusively that this is the case. 

 Youatt, high authority on this subject, says : 



" Breeding in-and-in has many advantages to a certain ex- 

 tent. It may be pursued until the excellent form and quality 

 of the breed are developed and established. It was the source 

 whence sprung the fine cattle and sheep of Bakewell, and the 

 superior cattle of Colling ; but disadvantages attend breeding 

 'in-and-in,' and to it must be traced the speedy degeneracy, 

 the absolute disappearance, of the new Leicester cattle, and in 

 the hands of many an agriculturist, the impairment of consti- 



