74 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



SEPT. 6, 1843 



IMPROVEMENT OF DOMESTIC STOCK. 



Few ihiugs are nf more importance to the agri- 

 cultural interest of a country, than llieir domestic 

 animalg ; and any decided improvement in the 

 breeds, forms a solid addition to the productive 

 wealth of a nation. For instance, any change in 

 tlie character of our cattle, whicli, by addini.' to 

 their weight, aptitude to Iced, early muturily, &c., 

 sliould give a gain of twenty per cent, on their val- 

 ue, would increase the worth of this item alone 

 about fifty millions of dollars. That such an im- 

 provement might be made on the common stock of 

 this country, there are few intelligent men that at 

 the present time will doubt. Facts and experience 

 ere most conclusive on this point, and what is true 

 of rattle, will also hold true of all other varieties 

 of domestic animals. 



But while most will readily admit the necessity 

 and practicability of improvement, there are some 

 differences of opinion among practical and well 

 informed men as to the best methods of effecting 

 it. Some contend (hat the only rational prospect 

 of improvement is to be found in introducing for- 

 eign stock, and breeding from these, to the cxclu- 

 elon of all native animals. There are others who 

 maintain as strenuously that there is no necessity 

 whatever for any introduction of foreign blood ; 

 that we have among ourselves and in our own 

 Lerds, all that is necessary to produce as perfect 

 animals as any of the improved breeds of Europe. 

 Others assert that the truth lies midway between 

 these extreme opinions ; that the true course is to 

 import valuable animals, if they can be obtained, 

 from abroad, and breed them to our most valuable 

 and choice stock, taking care to select such as 

 are the best adapted to produce any given result 

 or quality. 



We shall examine these opinions in their order. 



Careful and skillful breeding lies at the founda- 

 tion of all improvement in stock, and this is mainly 

 effected by judicious selections. Color, form 

 quality and disposition, are all under the control of 

 the breeder. He can equalize and harmonize the 

 whole, or he can develope one point at the expense 

 of the others. It is rare, indeed, perhaps never, 

 that any single point is found in its highest degree 

 of excellence, except at the expense of some other 

 quality. Thus the taking on flesh rapidly, is in- 

 compatible, from the very nature of the case, with 

 a copious secretion of milk ; and the deepest and 

 best milkers of the herd, may usually be set down 

 as the most raw-boned, nut to say worst looking, of 

 the whole. The reason of this is obvious: the 

 quantity of nutritive matter taken in the food is of 

 necessity limited, and it is impossible for it to per- 

 form two offices, or rather be in two places at 

 once. It cannot go to the formation of flesh and 

 fat, and yet be secreted in the form of milk, 'i'he 

 term best, then, as usually applied, may admit of a 

 differe.it meaning. The best animal for the gra- 

 zier and butcher, is not necessarily the best for the 

 dairyman ; although there are few deep milkers 

 that will not, when the secretion of tnilk is suspend- 

 ed, take on fle.sh rapidly — a fact which shows the 

 incompatibility of the two. The best animal, or 

 the one which it should be the object of the breed- 

 er to produce, is the one that combines the most 

 valuable qualities, and it is in this sense that the 

 term should be always understood. 



The number of those who insist that we are to 

 look to England and to the produce of importations 

 from that country alone, for the improvement of 

 our stock, is of course limited. There is some- 



thing absurd in the idea of replacing tlie ten mil- 

 lions of our native cattle by imported ones, or their 

 progeny, in any reasonable term of years. Be- 

 sides, had we the means to make the importation, 

 they had not the animals for us. 



'J he second position, viz : that we have in our 

 present native herds all the materials necessary fur 

 improvement, and that a resort to foreign improved 

 breeds is unnecessary, is far more plausible, and 

 has a much greater number of supporters tl^an the 

 one wo have just considered. It is argued, and 

 truly, that all the improved breeds are made up of 

 breeds ; tliat it is idle to seek for what may be 

 called an original breed ; that the varieties of do- 

 mestic cattle are depending on climate, crosses, or 

 perhaps in some instances on accidental circum- 

 stances; that the improved cattle of England have 

 been bred almost within the memory of man, from 

 old varieties already existing there ; that what has 

 been done, may be done again, and that nothing 

 but the same judg.ment in selecting animals to 

 breed from, and the same skill and perseverance in 

 following the laws of breeding to their results, is 

 wanting, to produce as valuable stock from our na- 

 tive varieties as has been produced from the native 

 varieties of England. We have purposely stated 

 this argument in its strongest form, because, while 

 we admit the possibility of producing in this coun- 

 try, improved breeds equal perhaps in value to 

 those at present existing in Europe, we think it 

 would be the height of folly to undertake the task 

 in preference to availing ourselves of the labors 

 and skill of European breeders. To make our- 

 selves understood, we will select tlie Short Horns 

 or Durhams, as the breed best known, for the pur- 

 pose of illustration. 



We can trace the Short Horns, as a distinct 

 breed, to its originators, Charles and Robert Col- 

 lins, some fifty years since. Others, as Berry and 

 Coates, co-operated most effectually in forwarding 

 ihe improvement commenced by them; and within 

 the last twenty years, the number of breeders of 

 this stock has multiplied in every part of England. 

 That their excellencies are permanent and fixed in 

 the breed, is proved by their invariably imparting 

 more or less of them to any variety with which 

 they are crossed ; that the blemishes and faults 

 occasionally to be found in them, are to be consid- 

 ered as accidental, and not inherent in the breed, 

 is proved by the fact that these defects are rarely 

 propagated or reproduced in their progeny. It has 

 taken at least fifty years to bring up the Short 

 Horns to this point of excellence ; and there is no 

 probability whatever that any modern skill or 

 knowledge could materially shorten this period in 

 engrafting these valuable qualities upon the native 

 stock of this country, by simple selection and breed- 

 ing from our varieties alone. We must, then, to 

 raise up an American breed from native stock only, 

 combining as many valuable qualities as the Short 

 Horns at present possess, employ some fifty years, 

 with much labor and money, and then find our- 

 selves at precisely the point of improvement where 

 the English breeders now arc. We think, then, 

 that the advocates of an exclusive American breed, 

 or one produced from our native varieties, without 

 reference to foreign stock, are guilty of as great 

 an absurdity as those who would rely on imported 

 stuck only, to replace with an improved stock our 

 native herds. 



The third course for improvement, is that of 

 those who believe that the bc-it way is, to obtain 

 the beat and highest bred animals from abroad, 



when such can be procured, and breed them to oi i 

 best and choicest native stock. And this is tli 

 method to which we give a decided preference. 



A question most important to the agricultural it 

 terests of the country, is not unfrcquently askei 

 how can the desired improvements be most certair 

 ly and expeditiously made.' On this point we ar 

 fortunately not left to theory alone; but we hav 

 the result of many experiments which would seei 

 to be decisive of the matter. In all crosses froi 

 a high bred or made up stock, with inferior breed 

 there is a constant and powerful tendency to detc 

 rioration. Habit is hardly equal to a contest wit 

 nature ; implanted qualities, unless carefully guard 

 cd, are apt to disappear before the powerful ten 

 dencies of natural and constitutional ones ; and 

 is to prevent this degeneracy, to retain all the oL 

 qualities that are valuable, and add new ones tha 

 are desirable, that requires all the skill and cau 

 tion of the breeder. 



Our opinion as to the true course to be followed 

 and the one which we doubt not will be generalh 

 adopted, is, for the breeder to select a full brei 

 bull of the kind preferred, possessing those quali 

 ties most desirable, or indicating that they are in 

 herent in the breed. Much is depending on thi 

 proper selection of the male, for it is he that stampi 

 most indelibly his character on the progeny. As 

 certain whether the animals from which he is de 

 scended, the particular family, we mean, are notet 

 for any particular quality, and what tiiat may be 

 In the same breed, and of equal purity of blood 

 animals may be found in which the predominatinc 

 quality differs essentially. Aptitude to fatten 

 deep milking, excellence in the yoke, kind hand- 

 ling, &c. &c., may not be prominent in all animals 

 of a breed ; and it is for the breeder to select with 

 reference to the qualities most desirable. 



Having secured bulls of undeniable excellence, 

 let the breeder next select from his native stock 

 the best cows he possesses, or that can be procur- 

 ed — those in which the qualities of easy fecdin", 

 deep milking and kind dispositions appear to be 

 the most strongly marked and fixed, and breed 

 from such cows only, if lie hopes to effect a perma- 

 nent improvement in his st<^ck. We have never 

 known an instance in which such a cross did not 

 at once mark and change the character of a stock 

 for the bettor. 



Let it be remembered that breeding from cross, 

 es, without recurrence to pure blood, always de. 

 generates ; but where the first cross or half blood 

 is bred to a full blood, a half blood heifer to a pure 

 blood bull, for instance, improvement is sure to fol- 

 low. 



The course pursued by many, perhaps most of 

 our farmers, is this. A native cow is bred to a 

 pure Short Horn, and the progeny is a fine bull 

 calf. This calf, a half blood, is used h.r a bull 

 with his herd of native cows, and the farmer is 

 surprised to find such a falling off in the qualities 

 of his calves from that of their sire. Now the true 

 course would be, if the progeny in the first in- 

 stance was a bull calf, to fit him for the yoke or 

 Ihe shambles ; if a heifer, to breed her to a pure 

 blood bull, and a good ciilf might be considered 

 certain. By this recurrence to pure bio. id, the 

 stock will be constantly rising; by breeding from 

 crosses without such recurrence, it will be as cer- 

 tainly sinking. By proceeding in the way here 

 pointed out, using full blood bulls and the hest na- 

 tive cows, our stock as a whole would be rapidly 



