432 MANAGEMENT OF CATTLE. 



ated in ancestors, and that the qualities of the father predominate 

 in the posterity, particularly as regards oxen and sheep. This point 

 settled, the choice of a good male is evidently the first point of con- 

 sequence in attempting to improve a breed. As it is not possible, 

 however, to find either a bull, or a tup, or a stallion, quite perfect, 

 the one must be chosen that is most free from defect, particularly 

 the defect or defects which we have it in view to correct in our 

 breeding animals, our cows, ewes, and mares. Certainly no reason- 

 able breeder would bring together animals that presented similar de- 

 ficiencies ; on the contrary, he will strive to have his female served 

 by the male which shows all the qualities in the very highest degree 

 that are most wanting in her. On the whole, the association of 

 animals of the same race appears to me the best mode of continuing 

 desirable qualities, especially when this is conjoined with ample sup- 

 plies of good food to the young. The influence of feeding is im- 

 mense ; in my own neighborhood I see that the progeny of the 

 Bechelbronn bulls are often inferior both in stature and shape to 

 those that are brought up in our own stables. 



Great size, however, is not always to be regarded as an improve- 

 ment ; height is by no means a constant indication of vigor of con- 

 stitution. Improvement in those particulars of form and stature 

 which are ascertained to be best suited to the circumstances of the 

 locality, the climate, the pasture, &c., are the points to be especially 

 attended to. It is above all indispensable to breed animals of vigor- 

 ous constitution : over-refinement of original races has often led to 

 indiflferent conformation of body, and to undoubted delicacy of con- 

 stitution, which has rendered the herd or the flock much more ob- 

 noxious to attacks of epizootic diseases. 



The degree of refinement of an original stock is evidently con- 

 nected with the quantity and quality of the forage of the district. 

 In cold and mountainous districts, where the herbage is scanty, it is 

 necessary to restrain the ambition of having highly-improved stock 

 within considerably narrow limits ; in such circumstances, the grand 

 aflfair is to have a hardy race, not over nice in its food, which, through 

 a considerable portion of the year, consists of but coarse grass. 



The ox {bos taurus) has been reduced to domesticity from the 

 remotest ages, and nothing but conjecture can be offered with regard 

 to its original race. The animal accommodates himself with won- 

 derful facility to the most opposite climatic circumstances ; he mul- 

 tiplies with astonishing rapidity in the hottest regions of the tropics ; 

 unknown at the period of the conquest, he has now overrun the 

 steppes of the vast basins of the Oronoco and the Amazons ; and 

 is met with in vast herds on the highest and coldest table-lands of 

 the Andes, even up to the line of perpetual snow ; wherever there 

 is food, he appears to thrive ; the extremes of temperature seem to 

 have little or no influence upon him. 



The buffalo (the bos bubulus of naturalists) is the only other mem- 

 ber of this family that has been domesticated. He is fond of warmth, 

 and is supposed to have been introduced into Italy towards the sixth 

 century, from Eastern Asia. The buffalo is also found in Hungary 



