NEW YORK, OCTOBER 8, 1887 
PRICE FIVE CENTS. 
$2.00 PER YEAR. 
Entered, according to Act of Congress, In the year, 1887, by the Rural New-Yorker, in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washintong. 
tinued success. While some seem to have had 
the appearance of success for the first season 
or so, further trial has proven them to be 
failures. We would certainly be glad to give 
and to get light on this subject and would 
value the experience of any breeder who feels 
that he has made discoveries in this line. 
Syracuse, N. Y. 
that affect either sex in vigor, etc. But while 
we observe these variations; no man and no 
accumulation of facts allow us to say that any 
procedure will bring this or that sex. The 
Stuyvesant theory is the most plausible 
known to me. I say plausible, for that is all 
that it is shown to be. 
Columbia, Mo. 
young in succession, regardless of what the 
sires may be, without any reason to account 
for it, and again they alternate, from year to 
year, in the sexes of their young. In fact, I 
can give no opiuion in the matter. 
Buffalo, N. Y. 
OUR ANIMAL PORTRAITS. 
GRADE HOLSTEIN-KRIESIAN STEER. 
At Fig. 3(50 is shown a fine specimen of a 
grade steer by a full-blood Holstein-Friesian 
bull out of a cow with some Short-horu blood. 
He was the property of the Agricultural De¬ 
partment of the Illinois University at Cham¬ 
paign. and was calved March 28, 1884, and 
weighed 1,815 pounds on November 1, 1880— 
a gain of 650 pounds in the last year. Profes¬ 
sor Morrow tells us that this steer, almost 
without exception, made a good gain every 
month, and, while a 
little coarse aud „r.cr--- 
heavy in structure, 
was a smooth-fleshed 
profitable a n i m a 1, 
selling, in Chicago, JRa 
at a little over #99, e ^ 
even with the pro- Att- 
vailing low prices. 
The laws which govern the sex of progeny, 
if tbere are laws, are little understood. There 
are many theories, some of which appeal- to 
be sound if tried for short periods; but I am 
not acquainted with a single one that proves 
reliable in all cases and for long periods. 
Many extensive observations have been made, 
but the results are widely different. Sir Ev- 
eret Howe believed the ovum to be sexless and 
that the sex might 
not be confirmed un- 
R jlz til some time after 
copulation, that the 
final determination 
of the sex depends on 
^ the de S™ of POten- 
tiality given to the 
germ by its parents. 
of the firm opinion 
r®nfc determined the 
FROM PROFESSOR A. J. COOK. 
As yet there is no known way to breed for 
sex. There is quite a general belief that there 
is an alternation of sex. That is, that if a 
cow gives birth to a heifer this year, she will 
probably bear a male calf next year. Dr. 
Sturtevant expressed the opinion a few years 
since that the breeder could control sex by 
FROM L. F. ALLEN. 
I can give no conclusive opinion, and if I 
gave auy opinion at all it would be worthless, 
judging by all my experience in breeding for 
sex, in my upwards of 40 years of stock breed¬ 
ing. I have read mauy notices and essays on 
that subject published in the papers during 
many past years, but none of them convinced 
BREEDING FOR 
SEX. 
ipriug. 
M. Grrou, after long 
and painstaking ex¬ 
periments, concluded 
that sex depends 
upon the relative 
vigor of the animals 
coupled. While beep¬ 
ing large flocks of 
Merino sheep some 
years since in the 
West,I observed that 
nearly all of the 
lambs first dropped 
were males. As ewe 
lambs were more de¬ 
sirable this caused 
some solicitude, but 
as the yeaning pro¬ 
gressed the sexes 
were about evenly 
divided,and.later on, 
the females predomi¬ 
nated, finally the few 
scattering lambs 
yeaned in June 
would be males. This 
was so common 
throughout thesheep 
Almost every year 
some genius advertis¬ 
es a sure method of 
determining the sex 
of calves or coifs. 
Such advertisements 
are usually very pro¬ 
fitable. Could a pos¬ 
itive rule bo discov¬ 
ered for determining 
sex with absolute cer¬ 
tainty, breeders of 
cattle and horses 
would be greatly 
benefited. With a 
view of putting be¬ 
fore our renders the 
latest facta obtain¬ 
able on this subject, 
the Rural has inter¬ 
viewed a number of 
breeders and scien¬ 
tists. The following 
replies are typical: 
FROM PROFESSOR 
G. E. MORROW. 
The theory that 
females of species 
- . ' ■ 
which usually pro- OhiE-IIALF HOLSTEIN GRADE STEER, LELAND. Fig. 300. 
duce but one, develop 
district that every 
bserving flock-mas- 
ova of different 
sex at each alternate period of heat, has seemed 
plausible to me, and in my own observation, 
for a number of years past, I have not known 
it disproved, except whore twins of opposite 
sex wore produced. In a large number of 
cases where cows wore bred at what was be¬ 
lieved the first or third or fifth period of heat 
after calving, the resulting offspring was of 
opposite sex from that of the last calf. There 
is often room for doubt, and I do not claim 
this theory is correct. I have not felt dis¬ 
posed to rely with confidence on auy other. 
Champaign, Ill. 
FROM SMITHS, POWELL & LAMB. 
We have never experimented much in breed¬ 
ing for sex. aud our idea is that that .secret 
has been withheld from man by the Almighty, 
in His great wisdom, for were it not so, species 
of certain animals would soon become extinct. 
Wo kuow• of no rule for determining the sex 
of the offspring of an animal, that can be relied 
upon w ith any degree of certainty. We have 
heard of many methods, but so far as we are 
aware none of them has ever met with con- 
taking note of this fact. He argued that the 
eggs alternated as to sex. Hence if a cow- 
bear a heifer this year, and one heat has 
passed before Impregnation occurred, then a 
heifer would result next. year. It is certain 
that there is a tendency to this alternation. 
But there are so many exceptions to it as tv 
rule that we may well wonder whether it 
is more than this: that most animals bear 
about the sumo number of males aud females, 
hence if a male was last brought forth, a 
feuiule will be more probable at next parturi¬ 
tion. In buying cattle I always like to know 
that the cow bore a bull calf last; then I ex¬ 
pect a heifer next. So far I huve never been 
disappointed, 
Lansing, Mich. 
FROM PROFESSOR J. W. SANBORN. 
I have no faith in any of the theories of 
breeding for sex. No living or dead man 
holds any secret or open knowledge of how to 
control sex. Prepotency sometimes is noted 
in animals aud varies with seasons, aud may- 
be due to physical causes or surroundings, 
me of their efficacy. The book of Genesis has 
told us that, “ male and female created He 
them;” but it gives tio instruction in what 
way mau can direct the sex>. s in production. 
We find, however,that the annual productions 
of all our domestic animals are about equal in 
number of sexes, alternating in different 
years in all four-footed animals on the same 
farm ami in different neighborhoods under 
like circumstances. In some years a prepon¬ 
derance of males is produced; in other years 
a preponderance of females, so that the aver¬ 
age will be about the same iu both sexes. 
Such has been my experience iu cattle, horses, 
sheep and swine, regardless of any given rules 
by writers on the subject, several of which I 
have, from time to time, followed. It is need¬ 
less to enumerate them. Sometimes they 
have partially succeeded, and again the exact 
contrary has been the result. Accident in 
time of coition with the male and female 
may govern the sex of the produce,but such ac¬ 
cident is just as uncertain as the effect iu fol¬ 
lowing any rule which may be formulated. 
Some females produce several male or female 
ter remarked upon 
t, and it was invariably-explained by the fact 
that the rams being more highly fed and fit¬ 
ted were more vigorous than the ewes at the 
beginning of the breediug season; later on 
they were less vigorous, finally after the ewes 
were nearly all pregnant the rams recuperated 
aud w ere agaiu more vigorous than the few 
scattering ewes that they mot. 
Some observations in France appear to show 
that ewes producing females are of a greater 
average weight than are those that produce 
males, and tliat they lose lass in weight while 
nursing than the former. There is without 
doubt much reliable evidence which points 
unmistakably towards the government of sex 
by the pareut having the greater vigor. It 
must not be forgotten that the hard-worked, 
lean female, often has far more reproductive 
vigor than the more fleshy- aud pampered 
male. 
With most wild animals the progeny is the 
offspring of the strongest males, hence we 
might expect that males would predominate, 
but the other fact must be considered namely, 
that the most vigorous females tend, as we 
