IMPROVEMENT OF BREEDS. 111 
and more ancient in the first place his own race may be; and 
in the next place, the less resistance is offered by the female 
through the possession of those qualities of purity and long 
descent, which are so valuable in the sire. 
The French writer says: ‘ With a view to the experiment 
proposed, it was necessary to procure English rams of the 
purest and most ancient race, and unite with them French 
ewes of the modern breeds, or rather of mixed blood forming 
no distinct breed at all. It is easier than one might have 
supposed to combine these conditions. On the one hand, Ise- 
lected some of the finest rams of the New-Kent breed, regen- ° 
erated by Goord. On the other hand, we find in France 
many border countries lying between distinct breeds, in which 
districts it is easy to find flocks participating in the two neigh- 
boring races. Thus, on the borders of Berry and La Sologne 
one meets with flocks originally sprung from a mixture of the 
two distinct races that are established in those two provinces. 
Among these, then, I chose such animals as seemed least defect- 
ive, approaching, in fact, the nearest to, or rather departing 
the least from, the form which I wished ultimately to produce. 
These I united with animals of another mixed breed, picking 
out the best I could find on the borders of La Beauce and 
Touraine, which blended the Tourangelle and native Merino 
blood of those other two districts. From this mixture was ob- 
tained an offspring combining the four races of Berry, Sologne, 
Touraine, and Merino, without decided character, without 
fixity, with little intrinsic merit certainly, but possessing the 
advantage of being used to our climate and management, and 
bringing to bear on the new breed to be formed, an influence 
almost annihilated by the multiplicity of its component ele- 
ments. 
“Now what happens when such mixed-blood ewes are put 
“to a pure New-Kent ram? A lamb is obtained containing 
fifty hundredths of the purest and most ancient English blood, 
with twelve and a half hundredths of four different French 
races, which are individually lost in the preponderance of 
