56 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



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 ness of such female being thereby forever destroyed. 

 As for the positive benefits arising from the inocula- 

 tion — they are obvious to any unbiased mind. The 

 black polled and Aberdeenshire cattle common to this 

 country (Scotland) may be, and often are, improved by 

 the following plan : Select a good, well formed, and 

 healthy heifer — put her, in proper season, to a pure 

 Short-horn bull ; after the calf to this Durham bull, 

 breed from the cow with bulls of her own breed ; occa- 

 sionally, and most likely the first time, a red calf ulti- 

 mately having horns will appear even from the polled 

 bull and cow ; but in general the calves will be of the 

 same type with the polled parents but with many 

 points improved, and an aptitude to fatten, to come 

 earlier to maturity, &c., such as no one of the pure 

 polled or Aberdeenshire breed ever exhibited in this 

 country, or any other country, however well kept, 

 previous to the introduction of the Short-horn breed. 

 The offspring of these breeds thus improved, when bred 

 from again, will exhibit many points and qualities of 

 excellence similar to the best crosses but retaining 

 much of the hardiness of the original stock, no mean 

 consideration for this changeable and often severe 

 climate. And, moreover, such crosses, — for they are 

 crosses — ^will command high prices as improved polled 

 or Aberdeenshire cattle. I happen to know of a case 



