IMPROVEMENT OF BKEEDS. Ill 



and more ancient in the first place liis own race may be ; and 

 in the next place, the less resistance is offered by the female 

 through the possession of those qualities of purity and long de- 

 scent which are so valuable in the sire. 



The French writer says : " With a view to the experiment 

 proposed, it was necessary to procure English rams of the 

 purest and most ancient race, and unite with them French 

 ewes of the modern breeds, or rather of mixed blood forming 

 no distinct breed at all. It is easier than one might have 

 supposed to combine these conditions. On the one hand, I se- 

 lected some of the finest rams of the New-Kent breed, regen- 

 erated by Goord. On the other hand, we find in France 

 many border countries lying between distinct breeds, in which 

 districts it is easy to find flocks participating in the two neigh- 

 boring races. Thus, on the borders of Berry and La Solcgne 

 one meets with flocks originally sprung from a mixture oi the 

 two distinct races that are established in those two provinces. 

 Among these, then, I chose such animals as seemed least defect- 

 ive, approaching, in fact, the nearest to, or rather departing 

 the least from, the form which I wished ultimately to produce. 

 These I united with animals of another mixed breed, picking 

 out the best I could find on the borders of La Beauce and 

 Touraine, which blended the Tourangelle and native Merino 

 blood of those other two districts. From this mixture was ob- 

 tained an offspring combining the four races of Berry, Sologne, 

 Touraine, and Merino, without decided character, without 

 fixity, with little intrinsic merit certainly, but possessing the 

 advantage of being used to our climate and management, and 

 bringing to bear on the new breed to be formed, an influence 

 almost annihilated by the multiplicity of its component ele- 

 ments. 



" Now what happens when such mixed-blood ewes are put 

 to a pure New-Kent ram? A lamb is obtained containing 

 fifty mindredths of the purest and most ancient English blood, 

 with twelve and a half hundredths of four different French 

 races, which are individually lost in the preponderance of 



