114 PRINCIPLES AND PBACTICE OF BREEDING. 



put them to breeding at two, but take off their lambs anc 

 give them to foster-mothers. If the young ewe is cai-efullj 

 dried off her milk, she will experience no injury and no losi 

 of growth. The increase of growth during pregnancj 

 will make up for the slight falling off after yeaning 

 The English breeds both mature and decline considerably 

 earlier in life. 



A theory of considerable importance to the breeder, i 

 true, has recently been started, viz., that the male which firs' 

 impregnates a female, continues to exert an influence oi 

 some of the qualities of her subsequent offspring, or at leas 

 is liable to do so. I have not, in my own experience 

 observed any proofs of this.* 



It has been a prevailing opinion among American breeden 

 that it is much better to breed between a small male an( 

 large female, than in the contrary direction. The reasoi 

 assigned by Mr. Cline, of England, who first, I think 

 publicly advanced this view, was that the foetus begottei 

 by the larger male has not room to expand and develo] 

 itself properly in the womb of the small female ; that it doei 

 not obtain sufficient nutrition from stores intended for i 

 smaller foetus; and that, in consequence of these things, i 

 can not obtain its normal size and proportions anterio 

 to birth : secondly, that it is liable on account of its extrj 

 size to cause difficulty, if not danger to its dam in yeaning 

 and finally, that the opposite course, by giving the foetu 

 unusual room and extra nutriment, tends to its most perfec 

 development. This is probably true as between differen 

 breeds, where the disparity in size is extreme, as, fo 

 instance, between the Saxon Merino ewe and the Cotswoh 

 ram. I would not expect a greatly overgrown ram to ge 

 as good stock as a more moderate sized one, even on ewe 

 of the same breed, but it would be quite as much fo 

 another reason as for any of the preceding ones, viz., tha 

 these overgrown animals never possess the highest attainabl 

 amount of vigor and general excellence themselves, and ar 

 not therefore fitted for sires, irrespective of relative size 

 But the rule should not be extended to the exclusion o 

 large rams of the breed, if good in other particulars. Katur 

 adapts herself imexpectedly to circumstances, in the face o 

 all theories. Constant and recent experiments, in England 



* Those who wish to eee the facts and arguments which are set forth to snppoi 

 this theoi7 will find them in Mr, S. L. Goodale's interesting work on tlie Principles ( 

 Breeding, published in 1861. 



