THE ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE OX. 
77 
proportion as the fattening properties of a breed becomes increased, 
its value for the dairy, and its certainty in breeding, become pro- 
portionably diminished. 
The improvement effected by the farmer in the instance just 
related is the opposite to what is frequently done. In most crosses 
the improvement gained by putting a high bred male to an indif- 
ferently bred female is owing to the diminution of the nutritive 
organs in the progeny. In the cross of the Chinese pig with a 
coarse long-sided Irish sow, or a Leicester ram with a flock of pure 
Cotswold* ewes, or a short-horned bull with a coarse Devon cow — 
in each of these cases there is an improvement effected in the 
external forms, and in the capacity for feeding and fattening in the 
progeny, and in each case will the lungs be found to partake of 
the smallness of the improved breed. But in the change of 
“ blood” effected by the farmer, the change of structure which 
took place, in consequence of putting his high-bred cows to a bull 
of a stronger and larger kind, the nutritive organs of the progeny 
which were the result of the experiment became increased in size, 
by which means he obtained an increase of health and strength of 
constitution at the sacrifice of a little fat. The crossing of the 
common Devon cow with the short-horned bull has lately been 
pursued to a great extent in Cornwall. This breed is generally 
inclined to coarseness, and the cross very considerably fines down 
the asperities, increases the aptitude to fatten, and improves the 
weight and quality of this kind at the same time. The cross 
invariably proves, at three years old, one-third larger than the 
Devon of the same age. The second cross proves more valuable 
than the first, and the third more so than the second. 
It is a common error to imagine that the second or third cross 
is not so valuable as the first. If a well-bred bull is employed, you 
may continue to breed ad infinitum, until the progeny assume all 
the characteristics of the short-horns. 
There is a question frequently agitated among farmers, viz. 
at what point will a mixed breed be considered as capable of sus- 
taining its own excellence, without having recourse to the pure 
blood whence it derived its first principle of improvement. Sup- 
pose, for instance, that, from the union of a short-horn bull and 
Devon cow— both high-bred animals — a half-bred progeny is pro- 
duced, that is, containing half of the father and half of the mother ; — 
it will be easy to draw up a scale by which we may readily de- 
termine the degree of pure blood that any generation, however 
distant, may possess. Supposing the progeny, being a heifer, is 
* The long-woolled sheep of Mr. Large, that have successively carried off 
all the prizes of the Royal Agricultural Society, are supposed to be a combi- 
nation of the Leicesters and the old Cotswold. 
VOL. XVII. L 
