AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[July, 
his man would have otherwise bent their backs 
over until night. Then, the previous day’s cu¬ 
ring can be carted in,, and with the horse rake, 
which should always follow the mower, the morn¬ 
ing’s cutting can be put in good shape before 
night. But who has ever seen a farm, devoted 
in part to hoed crops, where there was not al¬ 
ways weeds enough to occupy all odd spells 1 
-—.—-►*--— 
On Cross Breeding 1 . 
tNot only the owners and breeders of domestic animals, 
hut the general reader as well, will be interested in the 
following extracts, which we lake from a lengthy prize 
article in the last semi-annual volume of the Journal of 
the Royal Agricultural Society of England. The essay, 
written by W. C. Spooner, M. R. C. V. S , covers a space 
equivalent to a dozen pages of the Agriculturist, and con¬ 
tains many valuable illustrations from English practice. 
We have endeavored to extruot those portions embracing 
the pith of the whole.— Ed.] 
It can not be denied that the natural laws by 
which the preservation of animal species is ef¬ 
fected, are involved in considerable mystery, and 
though the subject is well worthy the attention 
and study of the practical man as well as of the 
physiologist, experience is yet fraught with so 
much contrariety that,|ittempts to lay down any 
certain guide on it, have, for the most part, been 
received with considerable distrust. No sooner 
does the inquirer imagine that he lias discovered 
some particular principle which obtains univer¬ 
sally, than he is met by circumstances which ap¬ 
parently upset his previous conclusions. The 
maxim “ like begets like," for example, is a rule 
having very extensive sway, yet, as propagation 
is the work of two parents, the respective influ¬ 
ence of the one or the other is a matter involving 
considerable diversity of opinion, and prevents 
anything like a certain conclusion being arrived 
at. We can not do better than consider, on the 
very threshold of our subject, the respective in¬ 
fluence of either parent; for on this the merits of 
pure or cross breeding must principally depend. 
The most probable supposition is, that propagation 
is done by haloes, each parent giving to the offspring 
the shape of one half of the body. Thus : the back, 
loins, hind quarters, general shape, skin, and size, 
follow one parent; and the fore-quarters, head, 
vital and nervous system, the other: and we 
may go so far as to add, that the former in the 
great majority of cases go with the male parent, 
and the latter with the female. A corroboration 
of this fact is found in the common system of 
putting an ordinary mare to a thorough-bred 
horse; not only does the head of the offspring 
resemble the dam, hut the fore-legs likewise, and 
thus it is fortunately the case that the too fre¬ 
quently faulty and tottering legs of the sire are 
not reproduced in the foai, whilst the full thighs 
and hind quarters, which belong to the blood- 
horse, are generally given to the offspring. There 
is, however, a minority of cases in which the op¬ 
posite result obtains. That size is governed 
more by the male parent, there is no great dif¬ 
ficulty in showing;—familiar examples maybe 
found in the offspring of the pony-mare and the 
full-sized horse, which considerably exceed the 
dam in size. Again, in the first cross between 
the small indigenous ewe and the large ram of 
another improved breed, the offspring is found 
to approach in size and shape very much to the 
ram. The mule offspring of the mare also very 
much resembles both in size and appearance its 
donkey sire. 
These are familiar examples of the preponder¬ 
ating influence of the male parent, so far as the 
external form is considered. To show, however, 
that size and hight do not invariably follow the 
male, we need go no further for illustration than 
the human subject. How often do we find that 
in the by no means infrequent case of the union 
of a tall man with a short woman, the result in 
some instances is that ail the children are tall, 
and in others all short, or sometimes that some 
of the family are short and others tall. Within 
our own knowledge, in one case, where the 
father was tail and the mother short, the chil¬ 
dren, six in number, are all tall. In another in¬ 
stance, the father being short and the mother tall, 
the children, seven in number, are all of lofty 
stature. In a third instance, the mother being 
tall and the father short, the greater portion of 
the family are short. Such facts as these are 
sufficient to prove that hight or growth does not 
exclusively follow either the one parent or the 
other. Although this is the case, it is also a 
striking fact that the union of tall and short parents 
rarely, if ever, produces offspring of a medium size 
—midway, as it were, between the two parents. 
Thus, in the breeding of animals, if the object be 
to modify certain defects, by using a male or fe¬ 
male in which such defects may not exist, we 
can not produce this desired alteration ; or rather, 
it can not be equally produced in all the off¬ 
spring, but can only be attained by weeding out 
those in whom the objectionable points are re¬ 
peated. .We are, however, of opinion that, in the 
majority of instances, the hight in the human 
subject, and the size and contour in animals, is in¬ 
fluenced much more by the male than the female 
parent; and, on the other hand, that the consti¬ 
tution, the chest, and vital organs, and the fore¬ 
head generally, more frequently follow the fe¬ 
male. 
We have dwelt on this point the more, because 
on it hinges the difficulty of effecting certain im¬ 
provements in breeding by means of crossing, 
and the still greater difficulty of establishing a 
new breed by such means. So great is tins dif¬ 
ficulty, that many breeders, finding their attempts 
at such improvements so frequently baffled, or 
observing this to be the case in the practice of 
others, cling witli superstitious tenacity to the 
doctrine of purity of blood, believing it to be the 
Ark in which alone true safety is to be found. 
Now, pure breeding, which, when carried to 
an excess, is called in-and-in breeding, has its 
advantages as well as its disadvantages. Its 
friends observe with great force, that when we 
have in breeding reached great excellence, it is 
folly to risk the loss of such excellence by means 
of crossing ; and tire more so, as the defects of 
a parent may disappear in a first or second, and 
reappear in the third or fourth generation; “ breed¬ 
ing back," as it is commonly termed. A friend of 
the writer’s, Mr. John Clark, of Lockerly, a 
strenuous advocate of pure breeding, observes 
that a correspondent in Suffolk informs him, that 
he had seen the cross tried between the old Nor¬ 
folk and Down sheep, and the first cross was ad¬ 
mirable, but they soon became disproportioned 
and unsightly ; also the Down and Leicester in 
some midland counties figured for a time, and 
then for the same reasons were given up, and 
such he tliinks will be the fate of the New Ox¬ 
fords, or the mixture of the Cotswold and the 
Down. He adds, that for the last four years lie 
has used rams from the cross with Down ewes, 
and the offspring have answered his purpose for 
fatting lambs, but one lamb in ten presents un¬ 
mistakable evidence of its mongrel origin. 
Again, it is urged, that great excellences can 
only be perpetuated by union with similar excel¬ 
lences, and beyond all this that there is a cer¬ 
tain amount of advantage from an unstained 
lineage—from the very possession of breed, as it 
is designated. The objectors to in-and-in breed¬ 
ing urge, that by so doing we engender weakness 
of constitution, diminution of size, hereditary 
diseases, and also a tendency to barrenness ; but 
it is argued in reply to such objections, that they 
occur from want of sufficient care in weeding out 
defective animals, whether as respects constitu¬ 
tion or size. It is a well-established fact, that in 
the human subject too close affinity, such as the 
intermarriage of cousins, tends to mental dis¬ 
eases and consumption ; and we can readily ima¬ 
gine that when there is a tendency to such dis¬ 
eases in a family, this tendency must he greatly 
increased by intermarrying with a member of the 
same family. Animals not being subject to men¬ 
tal diseases, the observation does not apply to 
them with the same force, but it is true in a les¬ 
ser degree. At the same time, unless the choice 
is extremely confined, most of the evils of pure 
breeding can be avoided by careful selection and 
rigorous weeding. Examples of pure breeding 
are familiar to us in the celebrated race-horse, 
the first-class short-horn, and the Southdown 
sheep ; but, so far as purity of blood alone is con¬ 
sidered, the mountain sheep of Wales, the High¬ 
land Scotch cattle, and .the Shetland or Welch, 
are equally pure ; but whilst the latter have been 
propagated without care or attention, the former 
have, by careful selection and rigorous weeding, 
been considerably enhanced in value. A striking 
example of long continued pure breeding is af¬ 
forded by the Leicester flock of Mr. Valentine 
Barford, of Foscote near Towcester, who has the 
pedigree of his sheep from the day of Bakeweii 
in 1783 to the present time, and since 1810 he 
has bred entirely from his own flock, sire and 
dam, without an interchange of male or female 
from any other flock. He observes, “ that his 
flock being bred from the nearest affinities—com¬ 
monly called in-and-in breeding—has not ex¬ 
perienced any of the ill effects ascribed to the 
practice. His flock is remarkably healthy, and 
his rams successful, but his sheep are small. 
Let us pause for a few minutes to consider 
what constitutes breed, or rather what is meant 
by high breeding. We shall find that it refers to 
very different desiderata in different breeds. In 
the thorough-bred horse it signifies a very high 
development of the muscular and nervous sys¬ 
tems, accompanied by such mechanical structure 
as when united with it constitutes the highest man¬ 
ifestation of speed and endurance. In the ox, how¬ 
ever, it implies very different qualities, viz., early 
and rapid growth—the development of flesh or 
muscle on the parts most prized for food—a dispo¬ 
sition to lay on fat; these, with the possession of 
smallest amount of bone consistent with strength 
and health, are the principal characteristics of a 
well-bred animal. Instead of the highly nervous 
temperament of the race-horse, we have here a 
quiet, lazy disposition ; in fact, a lymphatic tem¬ 
perament, by the influence of which the digestive 
organs reign supreme, and convert for the public 
benefit a given quantity of food into the utmost 
amount of flesh and fat. The same observations 
apply with equal force to the sheep, and in a 
still stronger degree to the pig. A well-bred pig 
is the incarnation of everything indolent and le¬ 
thargic, and the very antipodes of that high or¬ 
ganization and nervous development which be¬ 
long to a high-bred, horse. Examples of pure 
breeding are probably to be found in greater per¬ 
fection in cattle, than in sheep. The Devon and 
Hereford cattle have descended through many 
generations in unbroken lines, and owe the per¬ 
fection which they have attained to careful se¬ 
lection. The Short-horns, although considerably 
more modern in their origin, and moulded into 
their present form by a series of successful cros- 
