274' AMERICAN CATTLE. 



which is most for their own immediate interest, and probably, if 

 we were to write a volume on the subject contrary to that inter- 

 est, their practice would not be changed. The theory, and the 

 direction, at most of our American cattle exhibitions, are, that 

 the condition in flesh, of the animals placed in competition for 

 prizes, is not to be considered by the judges in awarding their 

 premiums ; but the result of the awards has in most cases been, 

 that the high fed ones get the prizes, and the leaner ones do not. 

 Much flesh, like charity, sometimes covers a multitude of sins, in 

 the anatomy wrapped within it. Hence, the tendency is to high 

 feeding with all who wish to make sales — as almost every breeder 

 does — and in all public sales of cattle that we ever witnessed, 

 the fat breeding cows outsold the lean, even when of inferior 

 anatomical excellence. The eye will, in a majority of cases 

 with men, as they run, take precedence of the judgment, and so 

 long as the popular feeling tends that way, breeders will take 

 that course which gives them the most ready money. Still, the 

 fact remains, that the forced feeding of young heifers is a hurtful 

 practice, in the long run. 



INFLUENCING THE SEX OF CALVES. 



We have, at different times, seen sundry papers, mostly by 

 fanciful writers, directing the way to produce different sexes, at 

 will, by the treatment of the cow, or bull, at the time of procrea- 

 tion; but we confess, without convincing us of any truth in the 

 methods prescribed. The most ingenious of these various pro- 

 cesses, and of course, the most painstaking, are given by French 

 or Swiss writers. We do not repeat them, for the simple reason 

 that we have no faith in them. The English breeders appear to 

 have little, if any, confidence in such artificial efforts, consid- 

 ering them, as most sensible people do, abortive. "Male and 

 female created He them," is the great law of production, and in 

 about equal proportions in all animated nature, so far as history 

 and experience has proved ; and all man's ingenuity to the con- 



