THE AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



Sex in Calves. 



JAVELIN," in the "Live Stock Jour- 

 nal," writes : — 

 The very interesting letter contributed 

 to your last issue by Mr. Harvey Mason 

 raises a discussion upon the important 

 subject upon which he has written. This 

 big question has long been a matter of 

 debate, and it is likely to continue so 

 until a somewhat remote future. 



Mr. Charles Darwin wrote to me in 

 1876 and asked me to get information 

 upon, as he expressed it, the control of 

 sex, from the ablest persons of my 

 acquaintance. I sought it and had letters, 

 some of them very long, from the greatest 

 experts then living in this kingdom. 

 Their opinions varied considerably — even 

 greatly ; but they all thought that the 

 sex was determined, so to speak, ah 

 initio, that is to say, that when concep- 

 tion occurred the sex of the animal was 

 made positive. The various theories, 500 

 in number, had their several advocates. 

 Some were certain that the results of their 

 examination and experience were conclu- 

 sive ; but as against that the experiences 

 of other experimenters were distinctly 

 hostile to those arrived at by these first- 

 named gentlemen, and accordingly noth- 

 ing at all was proved. 



I sent these letters to Mr. Darwin, and 

 he wrote expressing his thanks, and say- 

 ing he was glad to have got a sight of 

 these letters and the opinions contained 

 in them. He could not agree with the 

 views expressed by my correspondents, 

 and why ? The reason is as follows : — 

 Mr. Darwin saw that the views held by 

 my friends, that sex was at once estab- 

 lished in the embryo, was a false one. 

 He wrote me as follows :— " I think there 

 is fairly good evidence to prove that in 

 the embryo the animal is of both sexes 

 (that is, hermaphrodite), and that after a 

 time one or the other sex is aborted, 

 leaving the animal of the other sex to 

 that which is aborted, but what deter- 

 mines the abortion of one sex or the other 

 seems at present unknown ; probal)ly it 

 depends on many causes." 



Upon another point of view, and as up- 

 setting the usual theories as to sex being 

 controlled by service at one or other 



period of heat, there is the undoubted 

 fact that some families continuously breed 

 calves of one or other sex in excess. 



In 1878, Mr. Darwin asked me if I 

 could say if any families of Shorthorns 

 were addicted to the habit. I replied that 

 the Lupine family of Shorthorns which I 

 had bred for years always gave an excess 

 of females ; and Vlr. Jones, of Mulliaabro', 

 Waterford, wrote me that he had bred the 

 tribe for forty years, and they invariably 

 produced an excess of females. Again, 

 the great pure Booth Mantalini tribe, 

 which the late Mr. Thomas Barnes, of 

 Westland, cultivated for thirty-five years, 

 produced, much to his discomfort and 

 loss, an excess of males. 



The females of this splendid tribe were 

 worth 500gs. and 750gs. each ; the bulls 

 were comparatively of small value. 



Then when Mr. Barnes crossed Sylph— 

 the great prize cow of the tribe — m ith the 

 Bates sire Third Grand Duke, the family 

 took a distinct departure from their 

 former habit, and th^y bred an excess of 

 females, much to his gratification and de- 

 light. I mentioned to Mr. Darwin these 

 distinct proclivities in regard to these two 

 tribes of Shorthorns, and the result of his 

 consideration was given to me in his letter 

 as follows :— From what you tell me I 

 think I may venture to assert that occa- 

 sionally a tendency to produce one or 

 other sex in excess appertains to certain 

 families of Shor;horn." 



The conflict accordingly between all 

 the 500 theories and the actual experiences 

 of breeders is very strong and confusing, 

 and the varied views all tossed together 

 appear to me to have some resemblance 

 — indeed, a very distinct resemblance— to 

 a knotted skein of silken thread. 



The fact is that the discussion of the 

 various influences which are or may be 

 held to influence and control the deter- 

 mination of sex is exhaustless. 



Buck Jumping. 



A CORRESPONDENT recently wrote 

 tons (' The Pastoralists' Rewiew") 

 to enquire the authorship of the follow- 

 ing verses, which appeared in our issue 



