1861. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



317 



For the N*to England Farmer. 



PRINCIPIiES OF BREEDING. 

 BY JUDGE FRENCH. 



We have been much interested in the perusal 

 of a book of about 160 pages on this subject, from 

 the pen of the accomplished Secretary of the 

 Maine Board of Agriculture, Mr. S. L. Goodale. 

 In the reproduction of animals, as in all other 

 matters where the Life Principle is involved, 

 there are mysteries beyond human comprehen- 

 sion. That we do not gather grapes of thorns or 

 6gs of thistles, we very well know, but why a 

 thorn may not produce grapes as well as a grape- 

 vine, we cannot even guess. The naturalists may 

 examine it under his microscope, and the chem- 

 ist may analyze it in his laboratory, and neither 

 can find in the structure of the root or branch, or 

 in the elements composing them, the reason why 

 the grape does not grow upon the thorn. But 

 the fact we know, that nature is constant in her 

 laws of production, like producing like, as to the 

 genus or general family. But this constancy of 

 Nature which prevents confusion and the pro- 

 duction of monsters, and preserves a beautiful 

 harmony throughout her realms, is no rigid iron 

 mold which shapes with mechanical precision, her 

 myriad products. The largest liberty within the 

 bounds of law, the greatest variety within the 

 limits of order, the utmost progress and improve- 

 ment within the principles of identity — these 

 seem to be great laws of creation. While no two 

 blades of grass, and no two leaves in a forest of 

 oaks, are precisely alike, while the flowers of the 

 field by culture and skill may be reproduced in 

 endless variety, while the physical forms of ani- 

 mals, and the intellectual and moral powers of 

 men, are susceptible of progressive changes seem- 

 ingly infinite, we yet recognize in all and every- 

 where the limitations of Law. 



While we are rightly accustomed to refer to 

 the influence of the parents many, if not most of 

 the peculiar characteristics, of the oflTspring, we 

 are, in that direction, met by circumstances which 

 cause us to feel how inadequate are our ideas of 

 the limitations of the laws of reproduction. 



That outward and apparently slight ckcumstan- 

 ces may strangely impress the character of the 

 unborn progeny of animals, is illustrated in the 

 familiar account of the ring-streaked and speck- 

 led cattle of Laban's herds. The same principle 

 finds abundant support in many instances which 

 any nurse or doctor will recount. Dr. Holmes, 

 in his Elsie Venner, has gone one step beyond 

 the common notions, and chills the blood of his 

 readers with the deliberate portraiture of his poor 

 heroine, cursed body and soul with the cross of a 

 rattlesnake which frightened her mother before 

 the child's birth ! The interference of the old 



serpent with our moral afl"airs in the garden of 

 Eden is bad enough, but this new horror of the 

 learned doctor and elegant writer transcends 

 Adam's fall by a long way. 



Mr. Goodale, in a very pleasant and satisfacto- 

 ry manner, discusses the Laws of Similarity and 

 Variation, the Influence of Parents, the Law of 

 Sex, Crossing, In-and-in Breeding, and kindred 

 topics. The common nonsense that Natives are 

 as good as anything, if not a little better, receives 

 appropriate attention. A Native animal, of the 

 horse, sheep or cattle kind, may, in America, be 

 defined to be an animal of unknown pedigree. He 

 know well enough what a Native Indian or moose 

 or partridge is, but a native cow, unless she be a 

 buff'alo, we do not know. Yet, we find, at every 

 agricultural discussion, some venerable fossil 

 who advocates Native stock. His premises are 

 that he can go into Brighton market and select a 

 cow or half a dozen cows of Native breed, that 

 shall give more milk than your thorough-bred 

 Ayrshires or Jerseys, and his conclusion is, that 

 Natives are better than imported stock. Now 

 the fact, that ia a market among a hundred cows, 

 one or a half-dozen may be selected, of good 

 quality whose pedigree is not known, is not sur- 

 prising. Accidents will happen in the worst- 

 regulated herds, and good blood may have got in 

 and produced good stock, and no record be kept 

 of it, or it may chance that some scrub of a cow, 

 like the famous Oakes cow, whose portrait as we 

 have seen it, indicates no known blood, may be a 

 great milker. The question with the breeder is, 

 not how he can get one individual animal of good 

 quality, but how he can be reasonably certain to 

 breed good animals. The answer is found in 

 this principle, which is well established, that only 

 a breed which has been ascertained by long ex- 

 perience to constantly produce progeny of the 

 desired qualities, can be relied upon. You may 

 be sure that a full blood Jersey bull and cow will 

 produce a calf with the peculiar qualities of that 

 breed fully developed. They will never produce 

 any other progeny. But if either sire or dam 

 have but a quarter of the blood of the Galloway, 

 you will never know beforehand what the calf 

 will be. If you go into a liquor-dealer's shop, 

 and at random fill your glass with liquor from 

 three or four bottles, you may possibly find it 

 pure wine, but the chance is that it will be a vil- 

 lanous compound, though each ingredient may 

 have been good of its kind. 



The first question is. What do we want, and 

 the next. How shall we get it, says our writer. If 

 we want draft horses, and have mares of mixed 

 or accidental blood, let us get a Sufi'olk Punch, 

 and his established qualities will be pretty sure 

 to control the feebler qualities of the dam, and 

 give us something like himself. 



