ON BREEDING. 
267 
these constitute coach horses. The fourth has no particular cha¬ 
racter, being the result of accidental crossing among the rest*.” 
These varieties may be very properly designated gifts of nature 
improved by art. The beneficent Creator has ordained that all 
creatures shall increase after their kind ; but has still left much 
for man to do in regard to those which are more immediately sub¬ 
servient to his purposes. The same difference which is produced 
by domestication on animals is also observed in vegetables. 
“ Wheat,” says Buffon, “ has been so altered by man, that it is 
now no where to be found in a natural state. It has a similarity 
to darnel, dog’s-grass, and several other grasses; but still we 
know not to which of these plants it ought to be referred ; and as 
it is annually renewed, is used as the common food of man, and 
more cultivated than any other vegetable, its nature, of course, 
has undergone the greatest alterations.” Thus art divides the 
the palm with Nature , and the latter must be suffered to wear 
but half the diadem. 
Every plant and animal adapted to the service of man is made 
susceptible of endless changes; and, as far as relates to his use, 
of almost endless improvements. 
Accidental varieties oftentimes take place ; and animals that 
have been produced by the freaks of Nature become capable of pro¬ 
pagating their own deformity, until their characteristics have be¬ 
come constitutional and hereditary. The form and figure of 
horses have, probably, received fewer alterations from this source 
than any other, as the principal object in breeding horses is to 
obtain that peculiarity of form which is best capable of perform¬ 
ing the different purposes for which he was intended; and as the 
form and proportion which we are most accustomed to are the 
most essential to bodily vigour and flexibility of movement, it 
never became the interest of any one to breed from any of those 
animals which are designated monstrosities, and carried about the 
country as objects of curiosity, such as horses with five legs, 
others with only three. Foals are oftentimes dropped very much 
deformed. We once saw a foal with an immense long back and 
crooked legs, very similar, in appearance, to the description given 
of the anconf breed of sheep. In the former case the animal was 
* It. Lawrence’s Complete Farrier and British Sportsman. 
t A new variety of sheep was, in the year 1791, produced in America. One 
of the ewes of a farmer, of the name of Seth Wright, produced a lamb of 
very singular appearances: these were, shortness of the limbs and length of 
body. The fore limbs were crooked, as to give them the appearance of an 
elbow ; hence the name “ ancon,”from «yx«v, was given to this kind of sheep. 
By the advice of his neighbours he reserved this singular ram for breeding. 
The first year, two lambs only were yearned in his likeness; in the follow¬ 
ing years a number more, distinguished by the same peculiarities, were pro- 
duccd.— Philos op hie at Transactions, 
