VoL. I. AUGUSTA, Ga., SEPTEMBER 27, 1843. No. 20. 
Having published the article from the Albany 
“Culdvator” to which the following is a reply, 
it is perhaps but justice to our readers that we 
should give them the reply, in order that they 
may avail themselves of all the lights that may 
be brought to bear upon a subject of such high 
import to the planter. 
From the American Agriculturist. 
IMPROVEMENT OF DOMESTIC STOCK, 
Under this head, we find in the Albany Culti- 
vator for last month, a long and elaborate arti- 
cle, parts of w'hich recommend a course of breed- 
ing so directly opposite to all true principles of 
which we have ever read, or heard, or seen 
practised, by anything like what we should con- 
sider authority in this matter, that we cannot 
pass it over in silence ; for, if acted upon, it 
would totally destroy, in a single generation, ev- 
ery choice breed of animals that we now pos- 
sess, and which it has cost this and other coun- 
tries, so much time, labor, and money, to bring 
to their present state of perfection. The Culti- 
vator says, page 107, July No. : — 
“But it may be doubted by some, w'hether any 
improvement on the best oi the present high- 
biM cattle, is possible, and the idea of it be 
scouted as an absurdity. ‘What,’ it may be 
said, ‘talkN of improving a breed by crossing 
them with those still lower in the scale 7’ We 
ansiaer -j/es, aTul hope to shew there is nothing chim- 
erical in the plan. For illustration, we will 
again recur to the Short-Horns, as unquestiona- 
bly at the head of the improved breeds. Breed- 
ers have enumerated a great number of points as 
going to make a perfect animal ; to make one 
absolutely perfect, we will suppose that 3U enu- 
merated qualifications are requisite ; that the 
Short-Horns, as approaching the nearest to this 
standard, possess 20 of the desired qualities; and 
the other varieties or breeds in a descending ratio 
dowm to our native stock, which may be put as 
possessing but 5 of these requisites. The ques- 
tion is, can an animal possessing 20 good points 
be improved by one possessing only 10 or 5 1 
W e answer yes, if the one possessing 20 is defi- 
cient in any olthe points possessed by the low- 
est, or by 5. 20 may be deficient in hardihood 
or the power of enduring our seasons ; in milk- 
ing properties ; adaptation to labor; quality of 
flesh ; or some other pointer points possessed in 
a remarkable degree by 5 ; and this deficiency 
remedied by a skilful cross with 5, which shall 
engraft and fix the valuable point on 20, would 
make it 21, or furnish a decided advance to- 
wards animal perfection.” 
Now the idea of improving an animal that 
has twenty good points, with one that has only 
five, we cannot characterise by milder terms 
than saying, is as gross and perfect a piece of 
absurdity as we ever heard. The Cultivator 
seems to suppose, that man has the same plastic 
power over the animal creation, that the sculp- 
tor has over his clay model, and that wherever 
there is a deficiency in his subject, he has only 
to supply it with additional mortar, which he 
takes up from his heap at pleasure, or where 
there is an excess, to simply pare it away! Now 
the only true principle of improvement in 
breeding which we ever heard oi, is this : If an 
animal be deficient in any one point or more, ij 
must be crossed by another animal equal to it in 
all its good points, and superior to it in its defi- 
cient ones-, and then the chance barely is, that 
one half the produce may be equal to the superior 
animal thus used in the cross, and the other halt 
not inferior to the poorest. But if an animal of 
twenty good points be crossed with one of only 
five, no experienced person would expect that 
the produce would possess over ten or twelve 
good points at most; and it would be a sort of 
miracle, if a single one of the produce had twen- 
ty-one good points infused into it. When ani- 
mals are crossed, it is a law of nature that the 
blood mingles— it does not go in lumps. We 
must consequently take the bad with the good, 
and the extra hazard of deterioration, to which 
all breeds are constantly subject. We know 
that now and then, though very rarely, for ex- 
ample, breeding a superior Short-Horn bull to 
a native cow, and that produce, if a female, to 
the same bull again, that the third generation, 
the three-quarter bred animal, will sometimes be 
a very good one — to all appearance, nearly as 
good as the thorough-bred bull; but the produce 
of that three-fourths bred cannot be depended up- 
on for equal and exact breeding. W e have seen 
cows that had only one two hundred and fifty- 
sixth part of native blood in them, (and very 
fine animals they were too, individually,) bred 
to a choice bull, throw a calf occasionally very 
inferior, more resembling the dung-hill than the 
thorough-bred. 
We suppose, upon this principle, that to im- 
prove the Spanish fine-woolled sheep in hardi- 
ness, (though we contend that the old-fashioned 
Merinos were as hardy as anything that stands 
on four legs,) the Cultivator vvould take a cross 
upon the old native, or other coarse-woolled 
breeds, thinking it could do so at will, without 
deteriorating the fine wool of the Spaniard. If 
so, let it look to Lord Western’s experiments on 
this matter to be convinced of the ill-success of 
such undertakings. Again, to give size and 
strength to the racer, it would take a cross with 
the cart-horse, the most contemptible mongrels 
upon which we ever looked. We should be ve- 
r}"^ glad to know %ohere such animals would be 
placed after a thorough training, and a fast turn 
of a few miles on the course. We do not mean 
any unfairness in our argument by taking the 
cross of two different kinds for an illustration, 
but to place the subject in a stronger point of 
view, the ass is longer-lived than the horse ; now 
suppose we wish to increase the age of the lat- 
ter, why then we should breed them together, 
expecting that we should get, to a moral certain- 
ty, this one good point in addition in the pro- 
duce, without any deteriorating quality of the 
ass. But does the mule show this perfection! 
And ifit could be bred to the horse again, audits 
produce on till finally a thousandth part of the 
blood of the ass only appeared in the progeny, 
would not the shadow of its long ears still be 
seen, and the falsetto of its unearthly bray occa- 
sionally be lieard 7 How is it wuth the cross of 
the Caucassian and Negro races 7 Divine au- 
thority has asked, “Can the Ethiopian change 
his skin, or the leopard his spots 7” 
Yet enough, lor it would seem that the Culti- 
vator is not a convert even to its own bold as- 
sertions, for further on it says : “But there must 
be no breeding downward; every cross must be 
upward both in blood and desired qualities.” 
There are some other positions that the Cul- 
tivator takes in this article, which ate denied. 
For example : “It is rare indeed, perhaps never, 
that any single point is found in the highest de- 
gree of excellence, except at the expense of some 
other point.” We doubt, from the sentences 
which immediately follow this just quoted, whe- 
ther the Cultivator understands what it is talking 
about. 
We have not usually found, in our expe- 
rience, “the deepest and best milkers of the herd 
the most raw-boned, not to say the worst-look- 
ing of the whole,” but quite the contrary in well- 
bred Short-Horns. Did the Earl of Leicester 
improve the good milking qualities of the Devons 
at ihe expense of their fineness ofpoints 7 Were 
theAyrshires so improved! And are they at- 
tempting the same with the Herefords! 
It is denied that Charles and Robert Colling 
were the originators of the Short-Horns; on the 
contrary, any reasonable amount of evidence 
can be produced in England, to prove that Chas. 
Colling repeaiedly said, he never bred anything 
equal to the Short-Horn cow, which he purcha- 
sed of the agent of the Duke of Northumberland. 
Where is the Cultivator’s authority lor its as- 
sertion 7 We suppose we shall be told of Coun- 
tess that sold for 400 guineas — the Galloway 
cross, and all that sort of thing. Well, we shall 
be glad to have our memories refreshed withth* 
story, and when it is repeated in full, we shall 
see how much it Svdll avail the CuHivator. 
Did “Berry and Coates co-operate most efiec- 
tually in forwarding the improvement commen- 
ced by them,” [the Codings] 7 This assertion 
is really too rich, and we would fain ask for the 
authority on which it is made. The Cultivator 
adds, that the reputation of being good milkers, 
“does not belong to the improved breed.” Short- 
Horns, we suppose, it means. Ifit does not, wm 
should be very glad to know then to what breed 
of cows it does belong. But this, we opine, 
would depend very much how they had been 
“improved.” Ifbyacross with a scrub of five 
points, on a Short-Horn of twenty points, why 
then we have nothing more to say. We knock 
under to all such ^improvements.” 
The public will hereafter look to the Cultiva- 
tor for a new era in cattle-breeding, and they 
may hope, some half century hence, by its new 
code of rules of “improvement,” to get a decent 
milker or two I If the Short- Horn breeders put 
up with such gross calumnies upon their stock, 
why then we are greatly mistaken in their spir- 
it, and the sooner their herds are driven back to 
the place from which they came, the better. We 
did really believe that some few examples had 
been given on this point, and that they had inva- 
riably offered to meet the breeders of native, or 
any other stock, to milk with them — cow for cow, 
or herd for herd, however small or large the 
numbers might be. But since the Cultivator 
asserts the contrary, why we suppose we must 
fain believe it. But here we have another ques- 
tion to ask. Is the Cultivator sure that the 
cows mentioned m its May No., by Mr. Heslip, 
as giving so great a product of butter and cheese, 
are pare natives 7 We know that Shorn-Hom. 
bulls have been taken into Trumbull county, 
Ohio, and it is our firm belief that many of the 
animals there are grade Durhams in some way. 
We shall take the trouble, if possible, to get at 
the facts in this case. But native or not, we 
think that the breeders of thorough-bred Short- 
Homs will have no fear of matching their ani- 
