ON BREEDING. 
2G5 
“ In France,” says Buffon, u it is impossible to perpetuate the 
race of Spanish or Barbary horses; they degenerate even in the 
first generation; and in the third or fourth, unless the breed be 
crossed by the importation of fresh stallions, they become al¬ 
together French horses. The same variety that is seen in the 
horse species is also observed in the numerous breeds of cattle. 
The varieties of those animals that are dispersed over the 
different parts of Great Britain are so extremely numerous that 
no correct account of them has ever yet been published. In 
situations where they are brought from" different parts of the 
kingdom, as at the London or Bristol markets, the different 
breeds appear, when contrasted, as so many distinct species. 
“ Long horned and short, of many a different breed, 
Tall, tawny brutes, from famous Lincoln levels, 
Or Durham feed; 
With some of those unquiet, black dwarf devils, 
From nether side of Tweed, 
Or Frith of Forth, 
Looking half wild with joy to leave the north.” 
Almost every district or county has its peculiar breeds, which 
are generally distinguished by the names of the particular dis¬ 
tricts where they are most prevalent, and which variety, in most 
instances, is undoubtedly the most proper and suitable to the 
soil. 
Food and temperature are the principal agents in producing the 
diversities of form and figure of animals. Horses that are 
natives of dry and light soils are generally conspicuous for ele¬ 
gantly formed heads, knit limbs, clean legs, and small hoofs; 
combined with beautiful symmetry and graceful movements : whilst 
those that are reared in moist ground and rich pastures have 
invariably large heavy heads, gross bodies, thick legs, and broad 
hoofs. In temperate climes they grow to an immense size- but 
either in the cold northern regions, or on the parched soils of 
India, they become so exceedingly diminutive, that in Ceylon 
there are horses to be found that do not exceed thirty inches in 
height; and in Iceland and Norway, where the climate is severe, 
continually striving with the destructive consequences of an icy 
temperature, and with a scarcity of nutriment, the horses are 
small, ill-shaped animals, covered with long coarse hair. 
Individuals of the same specie are generally restricted to par¬ 
ticular regions, in the centre of which life is maintained with 
comfort ; but towards the margins, all the vital powers seem 
enfeebled : thus the two extremes approach each other. In its 
effects on the animal frame, extreme cold producing effects sinn- 
