1871. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



501 



considerable degree for the lightness of the 

 grass crop. If the farmer, therefore, by ex- 

 tra care in collecting and carefully making, 

 saves what under other circumstances he has 

 been in the habit of neglecting, these short- 

 comings may prove advantageous to him after 

 all. 



Again, who knows now, what blessings may 

 come by plentiful rains, delayed frosts, rich 

 pasture feed and abundant second crops? 

 "It is a long lane that has no turn," and a 

 long drought that has continued nearly two 

 years. 



Let us not anticipate inconveniences that 

 may never arise, but make all possible provi- 

 sion for the future by preserving what we do 

 have ; hold on to our stock, husband all our 

 resources with economy, and cherish an un- 

 faltering trust in Him who ruleth all things 

 well. 



For the Krw Encfland Farmer. 

 HOBBIES.— BLOODED STOCK. 



There is another hobby fixed up for the 

 farmer, fraught, perha]is, with more mischief 

 to his interest than most any other. I should 

 not dare refer to it, did I not feel that so 

 obscure an individual as I am, should my 

 views ever meet the public eye, would be 

 looked upon in the light of a very small dog 

 baying the moon ; and therefore would not 

 excite any attention from the very learned 

 advocates of the subject I am about to men- 

 tion. I refer to the raising of what is called 

 stock of pure blood. 



My attention has been called to this for 

 two reasons. One is the great prominence 

 that was given to this subject at the meeting 

 of the State Board of Agriculture at Framing- 

 ham last winter, in which it seems to me that 

 the speakers really proved the very converse 

 of what they intended. And secondly, the 

 eflForts that are being made to exclude from 

 competition for premiums at our County 

 Fairs, all bulls, the pedigree of which is not 

 found in some herd book. 



Now if the bull of any other breed whose 

 pedigree cannot be traced to an importation 

 from some foreign country is excluded, why 

 not all cows, also, and so proclaim at once, 

 that no excellence or improvement is to be 

 expected from any other quarters than from 

 these far-fetched and dear bought animals ? 

 As well might all ploughs, all mowers, and, in 

 fact, all agricultural implements, excepting 

 those of a particular manufacture, be excluded 

 on the same principle, viz., that it is idle to 

 look for improvement anywhere else ? 



I start with the proposition that very little 

 is established in regard to the physiology of 

 stock breeding, if you depart from the rule 



laid down many years ago by a quaint old 

 man, that the breed of the pig always went in 

 at the mouth ; or of the other man, who sold 

 his neighbor a cow after the said neighbor 

 had milked the cow himself and measured 

 the milk till he was satisfied of the amount she 

 gave ; but who after getting her home found 

 a great falling off, and upon complaining to 

 the seller about it, was told for answer, ah, I 

 sold you the cow, but I did not sell you my 

 meal chest ; thus conveying the idea that it is 

 feed and not breed that really makes the chief 

 difference in cows for dairy purposes. 



Now, of what particular breeds the seven 

 pairs were that Noah took into the ark, I do 

 not pretend to conjecture, but unless there 

 were more than one pair of a kind, it follows 

 that our modern breeder has not such en- 

 larged views of cattle breeding as the antedi- 

 luvian herdsmen had, when it was deemed 

 necessary to preserA'e seven pairs after their 

 kinds ; for in oiu- days we must be confined 

 to two or three. 



The first speaker on this subject was Prof. 

 Law, who spoke of the fundamental principles 

 of breeding. He said "we find that the foun- 

 dation of all success lies in the common aph- 

 orism, "like produces like," or, I suppose, in 

 other words, that like causes alwa_ys produces 

 like effects. "As the acorn developes into 

 the oak, and wheat into the wheat plant ; as 

 the horse, ox, ass, sheep and pig reproduce 

 their respective kinds, so are the corporeal, 

 constitutional and mental qualities of particu- 

 lar animals reproduced in their progeny." 

 "The rule holds alike as regard good qualities 

 and defects." 



Here, then, I thought, the Professor had 

 laid a foundation for his superstructure, but 

 soon, it seems, he began to think that this 

 foundation was too broad altogether ; for 

 pretty soon he says, "but the fundamental 

 principle that like produces like, is not an in- 

 violable rule ; were it so, every breed would 

 retain the same qualities throughout all time 

 and no improvement would take place," or, in 

 other words, it seems to me, that like causes 

 do not produce like effects. "Variations al- 

 ways take place, sometimes from unknown 

 causes ; sometimes from causes under our 

 control ; and in our ability to solicit, to foster 

 and to perpetuate such variations lie all our 

 powers of improving a breed." 



The Professor then goes on to show that 

 some of the known causes of variation consist, 

 first, in feeding. He says, "under a more 

 abundant diet the intestinal canal of the do- 

 mesticated cat and swine becomes more lengthy 

 and capacious than their wild progenitors. 

 Hogs allowed to run wild on the bleak Falk- 

 land Islands, have reverted in form and other 

 characteristics to the type of the wild boar. 

 Not so with those turned adrift on the rich 

 soils of La Platte or Louisiana. A similar 

 result took place in a pig which was seized at 

 two months old with a disease of the digestive 



