6 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
aa it has produced, have wholly disregarded the false idea 
that there is something in the blood of animals which 
renders deterioration nwre than probable if issue spring 
from parents who are as nearly related as first cousins. 
What is the blood of any person or animal, but a part 
of the food eaten within the previous 48, or perchance, 
60 hours 7 The blood of no father or mother was ever 
the same for six month in succession ; and, therefore, no 
two children born at different times, and the offspring of 
the same parents, were ever so much alike as some twins 
have been. Cain and Abel differed widely in their dis- 
positions; although neither could have had either the 
Tices or virtues of a long line of progenitors. The differ- 
ent members of many a family in our own time evince as 
wide a discrepancy of character, v/hose parental blood 
eame from the same living hearts. One child is very 
conscientious through life ; while a brother or sister dis- 
plays a lamentable want of moral rectitude. If the same 
blood in the popular, not scientific, use of language, pro- 
duces such varient results, why talk about the blood of 
eouains necessarily leading to bad consequences, if mingled 
by intermarriage 7 The notion is but little short of a 
downright absurdity. How can the marriage of a sound 
man and sound woman impair the blood of either, whether 
they are brother and sister, first cousins, or fourth cousins 7 
The thing is impossible, unless one gratuitously assumes 
Tices which it were just as logical to assume in the mar- 
ried life of any other parties. And if the marriage of near 
kindred cannot impair the blood of parents, how is it pos- 
sible for healthy parental blood to weaken the consti- 
tutional powers of its offspring 7 This, too, is equally 
impossible. Parents communicate deformity and imbe- 
cility to their children not because they may happen to be 
cousins, or their grandmothers were such, but from errors, 
defects and maladies which have an entirely different ori- 
gin. If it were proper to use the argumentum ad hominumi 
and were the writer addressing a legislative body it would 
be easy to name some of the blood- corrupting poisons 
which eat like a cancer into the constitutions of more than 
one generation. “It is not necessary to our argument that 
we point out any of the pregnant follies, vices and crimes 
which civilization breeds with extreme fecundity, to show 
that the occasional marriage of first cousins is not one of 
the number. 
Pure blood is never contaminated by what it parts with, 
but by what it receives that is impure. Hov/ to judge of 
the quality of blood is a lesson which even legislators 
may study with benefit to themselves and advantage to 
the public. The outward signs cf good breeding, of in- 
ternal health, strength and purity, are almost as difficult to 
describe as the beauty and splendor of a sunbeam. Liiie 
the latter, they may be seen and felt, but elude the grasp 
of one who would weigh them in a balance. An eminent 
writer on the art and science of breeding neat cattle has 
the following remarks ; “ The securing of the greatest 
profit with the least labor in breeding, consists in procur- 
ing that breed which attain the greatest weight and ma- 
turity in the shortest time, and on the least quantity of 
food. How is it that some animals of different breeds, | 
or different individuals of the same breed, fatten faster 
than others ^ They all receive the same attention and 
care, food and comfort. On inspecting the subject m.ore 
closely, the breeder discovers that those animals which 
improve fastest, are the most beautiful to the eye, and 
handsomely formed. Out of regard for them he has a 
desire to handle and fondle them, when he makes a new 
discovery — he finds that their skins feel agreeable to the 
touch, are loose and easily laid hold of. Their bodies are 
soft and fat and he can press his finger into the flesh, 
which springs back again in an elastic manner. He also 
ascertains the same properties in the parents of the cattle 
which have produced them ; and when he has made ob- 
servation he has made another discovery. He thereby 
learns that cattle possessing certain good and useful pro- 
perties have the power of imparting them to their progeny. 
His mind having thus been awakened to the proper 
course to be pursued in breeding, he perseveres in the se- 
lection of the best animals, and, in the course cf time, his 
experience and taste correct the defects that exist even in 
the minuter properties of his animals.” 
There are other points to be attended to with equal 
care and discrimination, but space will not permit us to 
cite them at length. The term “blood” as applied to neat 
cattle was used by Bakewell to designate those new 
breeds called into existence by him in which the most de- 
sirable properties to early maturity and easy keep had 
been fixed as a peculiar characteristic. Repeated and 
careful experiments have proved that^ome animals return 
twice the flesh for the food consumed that is obtained from 
others. By simply keeping young and growing animals 
warm and quiet, less nourishment is wasted in maintain- 
ing animal heat and muscular action, and more goes to 
produce tender tissues and fat ; and consequently giving 
a better return for the grain or forage consumed. More 
exercise, and a larger development of bone and muscle 
are required in breeding stock; while something of the 
high keep, and fattening process should be omitted. Due 
care should ever be had to avoid epidemics, or diseases of 
whatever kind ; and especially should caution be used in 
the application of popular remedies. We have no doubt 
that more cattle, horses and hogs are killed by medicine 
than are cured. In nine cases out of ten. Nature is the 
best doctor for live stock, if not for the human species 
also. True science teaches both prudence and modera- 
tion in dealing with so frail a thing as life. Science in- 
forms us that warmth is, to a certain extent, the equivo- 
lent to food ; so that the man who keeps his stables and 
yards well supplied with dry leaves or straw for his stock 
to sleep on, saves both fodder and flesh by so doing, and 
adds much to the value and quantity of his manure. Good 
keeping and good breeding are almost synonymous terms 
in stock husbandry. Calves should be early taught to 
eat corn meal, and have a little twice a day. Sheep ought 
to be fed regularly with turnips, beets or carrots ; each 
of which grow finely at the South according to our ex- 
perience. Let the reader try root crops for stock, and re- 
port the result in the Cultivator. L. 
RE-OPENING OF THE SEAVE TRADE. 
, Editors Southern Cultivator— -In the Decemfcfr 
number of your valuable periodical, I have read with 
much interest, the questions propounded to you 
by your correspondent, Mr, Thos P. Miller, of New Pre.s- 
pect, Miss , upon the “Re-opening of the Slave Trade." 
And I shall be pleased to see answers to his queries, eitl ci 
from you, or from any of your correspondents. 
And I should also be pleased to hear from Mr Mil!* r 
again, as I think he has taken a very sensible view i 
this late agitation. Native South C aroltnl' n. 
Columbus, Ga., Dec.AHbS. 
