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38 



THE ILLINOIS FARMEK 



will make the most perfect type of which the 

 materials are capable, ondor the circum- 

 stancei; and then ishe will re-produce that 

 type with perfect distinctness. In reach- 

 ing these resalts, first, she will intensify the 

 blood; second, she will cast ont heterogene- 

 oas elements which are accidental; thirdly, 

 she will make prominent, elements that are 

 inherent ; fourthly, and every now and then, 

 she will throw out some individual mark to 

 show that the work is in progress, but not 

 finished. Each one of the four statements, 

 in that last sentence, if true, and I am sure 

 it is, is of supreme importance to the breeder. 

 The four statements cover the entire prin- 

 ciples and results of close breeding, consider- 

 ed scientifically and considered practically. 



But now coraes the trouble. Beyond a 

 doubt, certain familits have deteriorated 

 under close breeding ; what then? The close 

 breeding did it. True enough, in one sense, 

 but not in the common one. Close breed- 

 ing did it, by revealing, intensifying, and 

 making permanent, the inherent evils pre- 

 dominant in the original blood, and obscured 

 by certain previous crosses. It ruined your 

 stock, not by making it base, but by reveal- 

 ing how base it was; and the remedy is, 

 not to quit that mode of breeding, but to 

 quit breeding creatures that cannot stand 

 that test. It is easy to get better blood; it 

 is impossible to change the laws of nature. 



Men have rushed to a superficial conclu- 

 sion, because it was obvious. ■• The true con- 

 clusion lay in the opposite direction. Certain 

 families of men and of inferior animals are 

 said to be ruined by too close breeding. 

 If they should say, the close breeding 

 brought out the original staple, and it prov- 

 ed, after being stript of some better crosses, 

 to be worthless, they would hit the mark. 

 All mixtures give way, under persistent 

 close breeding; if tne thing is dross at the 

 foundation, it will turn up dross; if gold, it 

 will turn up gold. And to my notion, all 

 history, from that of universal man, down- 

 wards, and all philosophy, the most abstract 

 and the most practical, alike incontestibly 

 establish the distinct and overwhelming 

 preference of nature for what is pure and 

 unmixed in all reproductive processes; and 

 her positive refusal to have anything to do 

 with mixtures, even in inert matter, except 

 upon terms so rigorous, that they form the 

 fundamental laws of many of the experi- 

 mental sciences. 



How close? As to man, the word of 

 God has clearly defined, in great detail ; and 

 the laws of Christian States follow it, in 

 general. As to all inferior creatures, each 



must be judged after its kind; each must be 

 subjected to culture, before the precise de- 

 grees of closeness, and the exact extent of 

 persistency can be fixed, even approximate- 

 ly. The first point is undeniably and long 

 ago reached, to-wit: breed within the limit 

 of pure blood. The second point is, that 

 which is now considered ; shall we keep to 

 the inner, or the onter use of thatimpossibje 

 limit? All the old breeders who left any 

 mark, said, keep to the inner edge ; all the 

 ambitious young ones, seem to be hunting 

 for what they call distinct crosses on the 

 outer edge. What we ought to do, depends 

 on what we seek. If we seek a many sided 

 man or animal, we had better keep to the 

 outer edge, if we want a specialty, we had 

 better keep to the inner edge. If we seek 

 only, and in general, a fine horse, or bull, or 

 ram, we may as well keep pretty far out, 

 but still in pure blood; but if we want the 

 best race horse, the best Durham bull, the 

 best Saxon ram, or the like, we had better 

 keep very close indeed to the inside edge of 

 the charmed circle of blood which represents 

 to us, under culture, the steadfastness of 

 the re-productive power of nature. 



They who honor me by reading these few 

 lines on a very important topic, will be 

 pleased to observe that I do not attempt to 

 do more tlian state clearly, and illustrate 

 simply, the opinions I favor. If I am dis- 

 tinctly understood, it is all I desire, or at- 

 tempt now ; not imagining for a moment, 

 that I have done more, than by that means 

 to awaken the attention of enlightened men 

 to the more careful consideration of a mat- 

 ter, which is, I fear, drifting in a wrong 



direction. 



<•• 



The Murdek Mania. — A murder trial has re- 

 cently taken place at Maidstone, England, 

 where the plea of murder monomania was set 

 up in behalf of the prisoner. Society is deeply 

 indebted to the judge, Mr. BaronBramwill, for 

 the plain spoken way in which, in his charge 

 to the jury, he demolished this defence : 



"If he understood the meaning of the term 

 'homicidal monomania,' it was that the man en- 

 tertained the bad desire to kill another and could 

 not control it; and he would only observe, that 

 if it were to go forth that any man who killed 

 another would escape the consequences if he 

 established such a fact, it would have a most 

 dangerous effect upon society; and it appeared 

 to him that the object of the law was to ch^^ 

 such feelings, and to teach those who were base 

 enough to entertain them, that certain punish- 

 ment would follow if they carried them out. 

 The real questions they had to consider were 

 whether the prisoner knew the nature of the 

 act he was committing; and whether he knew it 

 was a wrong act; and if so, it would be their 

 duty to say that he was gmlty." 



J 



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