BREEDING, AND THE PRINCIPLES OF THE SAME. 313 
creation the same law holds good. In fact, there can be no devi- 
ation frem it without incurring the hazard of paying the penalty, 
Heifers should never be put to the bull until they have attained 
the age of three or four years. At this period they are in their 
prime. If they happen to have acquired too much fat, their daily 
allowance must be reduced. 
Human growth, according to the best authority, ceases between 
the ages of twenty and twenty-five. In very warm regions, how- 
ever, where development and decay are universally allowed to be 
more rapid, the inhabitants come to maturity much earlier. A 
superior class of human beings can only be produced by selections 
and exclusions similar to those so successfully employed in rear- 
ing the inferior orders. We may rejoice in a Fulton, Franklin, 
or Webster occasionally, (by mere accident,) the parents uf such 
being absolutely ignorant of the first principles of physiology 
but, in the breeder’s language, such are in possession of the “ pre- 
requisites.” In the first place, they had not entered the marriage 
relationship prior to the age of reason. The parents, if we mis- 
take not, were full-grown men and women, not boys nor girls, 
They possibly possessed a sound mind and healthy constitution, 
free from hereditary defect of mind and body, which stunted 
growth, aided by artificial modes of life, are almost sure to entail, 
Until within a few years, a wise and salutary law was in oper- 
ation in the British Isles which interdicted marriage until the 
candidates had arrived at the age of twenty-one. That law has 
been set aside, and, consequently, the mass of the population of 
the present day will not bear comparison with that of the past. 
One safeguard, therefore, against stunted growth and ill-health 
is to avoid a too early use of the reproductive function. And here~ 
in we are not safe unless proper selections have been made, and 
faulty animals or persons rejected. I am persuaded that if hus- 
bandmen of these United States could all view this important 
matter in its right light, a very decided improvement would soon 
be the result. The subject will, however, eventually command 
the attention of all. 
Many persons urge that the offspring of blood relatives are 
weak, nervous, deficient in intellect, complete idiots, etc, and 
that further intercourse in the same direction only makes bad 
worse. These are facts which can not be controverted, yet the 
weakness, nervousness, etc, does not occur from the relationship. 
