VoL. I. 
AUGUSTA, Ga., august 16, 1843, 
No. 17. 
IMPROVOMENT OF DOMESTIC STOCK. 
Few thiog.s are of more importance to the 
agricultural intere.st of a country, than their 
domestic animals; and any decided improve- 
ment in the breeds, lorms a solid addition to the 
productive wealth of a nation. For instance, 
any change in the character of our cattle, which, 
by adding to their weight, aptitude to feed, early 
maturity, &c. should give a gain of twenty per 
cent on their value, would increase the worth, of 
this item alone about fifty millions of dollars. — 
That such an improvement might be made on the 
eo nmon stock of this country, there are few in- 
tellig.mt men that at the present time will doubt. 
Facts and experience are most conclusive on 
this point; and what is true of cattle, will also 
hold true of all other varieties of domestic ani- 
mals. 
But while rno.st will readily admit the neces- 
■sity and practicability ot improvement, there 
are some differences of opinion among practical 
and well inlormed men as to the best methods 
of effecting it. Some contend that the only ra- 
tional pro.spect of improvement is to be found 
in inti’oducing foreign stock, and breeding from 
thes'^, to thej exclusion of all native animals. — 
Tiiere are others who maintain as strenuously 
£hat there is no necessity whatever for any in- 
trod ucdon of foreign blood; that we have among 
ourselves, and in our own herd.s, all that is ne- 
cessary to produce as perfect animals as any of 
the improved breeds of Europe. Others assert 
that the truth lies midway between the.se ex- 
treme opinions; that the true course is to im- 
port valuable animals, if they can be obtained, 
from abroad, and breed them to our most valua- 
ble and choice stock, taking care to select such 
as are the best adapted to produce any given re- 
sult or quality. We shall examine these opin- 
ions in their order. 
Careful and skillful bree.'.ing lies at the foun- 
dation of all improvement in stock, and this is 
mainly effected by judicious .selections. Color, 
form, quality and disposition, are all under the 
control ol the breeder. He can equalize and 
harmonize the whole, or he can develope one 
point at the expense of the others. It is rare in- 
deed, perhaps never, that any single point is 
found i.i its highest degree ol excellence, except 
at the expense ot some other quality. Thus 
ihe taking on flesh rapidly, is incompatible, 
Irom the very nature ol the case, with a copi- 
ous secretion of milk; and the deepest and best 
milkers ol the herd, may usually be set down as 
the most raw boned, not to say worst looking of 
the whole. The reason of this is obvious: the 
quantity of nutritive matter taken in the food is 
of necessity limited, and it is impo.ssible for it 
to perform two offices, or rather be in two places 
at once. It c^not go to the formation of flesh 
and fat, and y&t be secreted in the torm of milk. 
The term best, then, as usually applied, may ad- 
mit ol a different meaning. The best animal 
for the grazier or butcher, is not necessarily the 
best lor the dairyman; although there are few 
deep I' ilkers that will not, when the secretion of 
milk is suspended, take on flesh rapidly — a fact 
which shows the incompatibility bf the two. — 
The best animal, or the one which it should be 
the object of the breeder to produce, is the one 
that combines the most valuable qualities, and 
it is in this sense that the term should be always 
understood. 
The number ol those who insist that we are 
to look to England, and to the produce of impor- 
tations from that country alone, for the improve- 
ment of our stock, is of course limited. There 
is something absurd in the idea of replacing the 
ten millions of our native cattle by imported 
ones, or their progeny, in any reasonable term 
of years. Besides, had we the means to make 
the importation, they have not the animals lor 
u.s. Notwithstanding the attention paid to the 
breeding of animals in England, the number ol 
the improved animals is still limited; and though 
cattle to meet any demcnd might be supplied, 
such as we should require, or ought to require, 
could not be had. Great changes in the char- 
acter ol the stock of any country, demand time. 
It has taken more than two hundred years since 
Gov. Winslow introduced the first three heifers 
and one bull into this country, to bring up our 
stock to its pre.‘-ent numbers. This was in 1624; 
and time would enable us to fill our country 
with imported stock, were it necessary to wait 
for such a consummation. As the question, 
however, relates to present improvement, the 
idea of depending on importation wholly, must 
be discarded. 
The second position, viz: that we have in our 
present native herds all the materials necessary 
for improvement, and that a recurrence to fo:- 
eign improved breeds is unnecessary, is far more 
plausible, and has a much greater number ol 
supporters, than the one ive have just consider- 
ed. It is argued, and truly, that all the improv- 
ed breeds are made up breeds; that it is idle to 
seek for what may be called an original breed; 
that the varieties of domestic cattle are depend- 
ing on climate, crosses, or perhaps in some in- 
stances on accidental circumstances; that the 
improved cattle of England have been bred al- 
most within the memory of man, from old vari- 
eties already existing there; that what has been 
already done, may be done again, and that no- 
thing but the same judgment in selecting ani- 
mals to breed from, and the same skill and per- 
severance in folic wing the laws ol breeding to 
their results, is wanting, to produce as valuable 
stock from our nativm varieties, as has been 
produced from the native varieties of England. 
We have purposely stated this argument in its 
strongest form; because, while we admit the 
possibility of producing, in this country, im- 
proved breeds equal perhaps in value to those 
at present existing in Europe, we think it would 
be the height of folly to undertake the task, in 
preference to availing ourselves of the labors 
and skill of European breeders. To make our- 
selves understood, we will select the Short 
Horns or Durharas, as the breed best known, 
for the purpose of illustration. 
We can trace the Short Horns, as a distinct 
breed, to its originators, Charles and Robert 
Collins, some fifty years since. Others, as Ber- 
ry and Coates, co-operated most effectually in 
forwarding the improvement commenced by 
them; and within the last twenty years, the 
number ot breeders of this stock has multiplied 
in every part of England. It cannot be denied 
that more .skill has been e.xhibited, a greater ac- 
quaintance with the true principles of the im- 
provement of stock acquired, and the real points 
that constitute the value of animals more fully 
developed in this case, than in any previous in- 
stance. Scarcely a variety of domestic cattle 
can be found, from which animals may not be 
selected, with one or more points as laullle.ss. 
and as well developed, as in the improved stock; 
bu’ in most cases, these valuable points must 
be considered as accidental, as experience proves 
there is no certainty of there being continued in 
their offspring. The science of breeding con- 
sists in uniting in one animal as many ol t' ese 
valuable properties as possible, and rendering 
them constitutional and permanent, so that they 
may descend to their progeny, cr so that the dan- 
ger of their loss may be avoided. This is what 
has been done in the case ol the Short Horns. 
That their excellencies are permanent, and fix- 
ed in the breed, is proved by their invariably 
imparting more or less of them to any variety 
with which they are crossed; that the blemishes 
and faults occasionally to be found in them, are 
to be con.sidered as accidental, and not inherent 
in the breed, is proved by the fact that these de- 
fects are rarely propagated or reproduced in 
their progeny. It has taken at least fifty years 
to bring up the Short Horns to this point of ex- 
cellence; and there is no probability whatever 
that any modern skill or knowledge could mate- 
rially shorten this period in engrafting these val- 
uable qualities upon the native stock of this 
count.y, by simple selection and breeding from 
our varieties alone. We must, then, to raise up 
an American breed from native stock only, com- 
bining as many valuable qualities as the Short 
Horns at present possess, employ some fifty 
years, with much labor and money, and then 
find ourselves at precisely the point of improve- 
ment where the English breeders now are. We 
think, then, that the advocates of an exclusive 
American breed, or one produced from our na- 
tive varieties, without reference to Jbieign 
stock, are guilty of as great an absurdity as 
those who would rely on imported stock only, 
to replace with an improv'ed stock our native 
herds. 
The third course for improvement is that of 
those who believe that the best way is, to obtain 
the best and highest bred animals from abroad, 
when such can be procured, and breed them to 
our be.st and choicest native stock, having re- 
ference, in our selection ol animals, to those 
points we consider most de.sirable in siock, or 
in which, perhaps, the imported are the most 
deficient. And this is the method to which we 
give a decided preference, and to wdiich, it is 
believed, we must resort and adhere, before any 
es.sential change in the character ot our stock, 
generally, will be effected. 
There are some who seem to suppose that we 
are to regard the high bred imported animals as 
perfect, and incapable, by any skill of breeding, 
of further improvement. No breeder, however, 
W'ho has any knowledge of his profession, will 
view’^ the matter in that light. He sees in the 
Short Horns,for instance, animals very superior 
to the common stock of the country; animals 
that combine a far greater number of valuable 
points, and are of consequence a decided im- 
provement upon any native breed; but he is far 
from looking on them or any other breed of cat- 
tle as perfect, or incapable of further improve- 
ment. On the contrary, he sees in these im- 
proved breeds, and these fine imported animals, 
the basis of still greater improvements; he sees 
in them, what the labor of the most skillful and 
careful in England have taken fifiy years to ac- 
complish; and instead of going back to the point 
from which they started, he intends to make the 
highest vantage ground they have reached his 
