316 THE CROSSING, AC, OF CATTLE, ET AL. 



the throat, a singular looseness of skin, or hollow- 

 ness in the neck. Everything is sacrificed to fineness 

 and quantity of wool, in them. This is the criterion ; 

 and, however deformed, or miserable the carcase is, it 

 always passes muster, if the special excellence be su- 

 perior, or up to the average of the breed. The conse- 

 quence is, invariably, the eventual ruin of the animals, 

 which die out, unless crossing is resorted to ; which re- 

 plenishes the organic stock, and saves the individuals 

 from sterility and extinction. The proportion of the 

 carcase, is not even a secondary consideration, with 

 breeders ; the most radical defects, in structure, being 

 often relied on, as assuring the purity of the breed. 



Bakewell, of Leicestershire, in the middle of the 

 last century, seems to have been the only breeder who 

 ever had a glirhmering of the correct principle of 

 breeding. His aim was, to procure the proportionate 

 development of all the characters, in his Sheep. The 

 effects of this policy, are observable to the present 

 day, in the .descendants of his breed. It is they, to 

 which Darwin refers, as being the animals which are 

 exceptionally exempt from the evils of long-continued, 

 close-interbreeding ! Darwin also remarks, respecting 

 them (p. 236, Vol. ii, Animals and Plants, &c): 



" Lord Somerville, in speaking of the marvelous 

 improvement of the New Leicester Sheep, effected by 

 Bakewell, and his successors, says, 'It would seem, as 

 if they had just drawn a perfect form, and then given 

 it life.' " 



Yet, breeders, whilst admiring the perfection of form, 

 and the almost complete exemption from evil, attend- 



