1852 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
179 
Breeding Stock. 
On an influence affecting the purity of blood in Stock. 
Eds. Cultivator —The breeding and rearing of stock, 
especially animals of high and pure blood, is daily attract- 
ing an increased attention from the scientific and enlight¬ 
ened agriculturist • and, when the farmer succeeds in ob¬ 
taining animals possessing the qualities sought for, there 
is no branch of his business that pays more generously in 
dollars and cents, than this; but so many failures are met 
with, and so many are disappointed in the progeny of an¬ 
imals, of even the purest and most renowned pedigree, 
that even among the enlightened, it is not seldom that we 
hear the advantages of blood questioned, if not denied; 
and it is more than intimated that the reason why ani¬ 
mals possessing superior qualities, owe their excellence 
mainly to the care that has been bestowed upon them in 
regard to their feed, &c. In regard to other depart¬ 
ments of agriculture, similar discrepancies of opinion do 
not obtain; and it would seem of importance to deter¬ 
mine why this difference of opinion in this regard? 
All are accustorand to rely upon experience, and it 
must be allowed that in this matter, many who have been 
to considerable trouble and expense in their endeavor to 
improve their stock of horses, cattle, or sheep, by breed¬ 
ing from animals of the improved breeds, have experienc¬ 
ed a grevious disappointment, in not finding the young to 
resemble the sire or the dam, as the case may be, as 
closely as they had hoped; and without being able to ac¬ 
count for this fact, in accordance with any laws that are 
known to them, and only knowing that they have failed 
of the expected improvement in their animals, they have 
naturally come to deny, or at least to doubt, what others 
have told them. This has been one, and perhaps the 
main reason, why so little attention has been paid by the 
majority of farmers, to the introduction of imported and 
other improved races of animals. 
But the English agriculturists seem to understand the 
causes of these failures; and, of course, how to avoid 
them; and it would be well if this information were more 
generally disseminated in this country. 
The reason is this:— The mother's system is influenced 
and changed , by the young she carries in her womb, and 
if the male parent be of a different breed, her blood is 
contaminated, and she rendered similar to a mongrel, for 
the remainder of her life. 
This assertion may startle many, who have given the 
subject no thought, but it is believed that no physiologi¬ 
cal fact is better established, or more susceptible of proof, 
than this; and as proof, I shall cite a few instances that 
have been noted by Dr. A. Harvey, physician to the 
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. 
He speaks of a young chestnut mare, seven-eights Ara¬ 
bian, that belonged to the Earl of Moreton, which was 
covered in 1815, by a Quagga, which is a species of wild 
ass from Africa, and marked somewhat after the manner 
of the Zebra. The mare was covered but once by the 
Quagga, and after a pregnancy of eleven months and 
four days, gave birth to a hybrid which had distinct 
marks of the Quagga, in the shape of its head, black 
bars on the legs, shoulders, 8tc. In 1817, ’18, and 1821, 
the same mare, (which had in the mean time passed into 
the possession of Sir Gore Ouseley,) was covered by a 
very fine black Arabian horse, and produced, successive¬ 
ly, three foals, all of which bore unequivocal marks of 
the Quagga. 
Another case, similar to the above, is mentioned. A 
mare belonging to Sir Gore Ouseley, was covered by a 
Zebra, and gave birth to a striped hybrid. The next year 
this mare was covered by a thorough-bred horse, and the 
next succeeding year by another horse. In this instance, 
also, both the foals were striped, and in other regards 
partook of the characteristics of the Zebra. It is a 
matter of common observation, that when a mare has 
borne a mule , she is never after fit to breed colts, as they 
will have large heads, and otherwise resemble mules. 
In the above mentioned instances, the mares were co¬ 
vered by animals, in the first instance, of a different spe¬ 
cies from themselves; but others are recorded, where 
they had bred only from horses, but by horses of diffe¬ 
rent breeds on the separate occasions, and yet the off¬ 
spring partook of the characteristics of the horse by which 
the first impregnation was effected. 
Mr. M’Gillivray, in an article punished in the Aber¬ 
deen Journal, speaks of several colts, in the Royal stud 
at Hampton Court, that were sired by the horse Actceon, 
that did not resemble Actceon, the paternal parent of the 
foals, but did bear a near resemblance to the horse 
Colonel, from whom the mares had brought colts, the 
year previous to their being covered by the horse Actseon. 
Again, a colt, the property of the Earl of Suffield, which 
was* got by the horse Laurel, that it was strongly inti¬ 
mated by the jockies at Newmarket, that he must have 
been got by the horse Camel by stealth, on account of his 
close resemblance to the horse Camel. This resemblance 
was, however, satisfactorily accounted for, by the fact that 
the mare had been previously impregnated by Camel. 
Many instances of a similar character, are recorded in 
regard to dogs—in fact the breeders of dogs all seem well 
aware that if the bitch has been impregnated by a mon¬ 
grel dog, that even if the father of her next litter is of 
pure blood, the puppies will be liable to be mongrels. 
Similar instances have also been observed in regard to 
swine, and the breeders of cattle have recorded similar 
facts. Mr. M’Gillivray, mentions several instances, and 
among them the following: 11 A pure Aberdeenshire heifer 
was served with a pure Teeswater bull, to whom she had 
a first-cross calf. The following season the same cow 
was served with a pure Aberdeenshire bull; the produce 
was a cross calf, which at two years old had very long 
horns, the parents both hornless. A pure Aberdeenshire 
cow was served, in 1845, with a cross bull—i.e., an ani¬ 
mal produced between a first cross cow and a pure Tees¬ 
water bull. To this bull she had a cross-calf. Next 
season she was served with a pure Aberdeenshire bull,— 
the calf was quite a cross in shape and color.” 
After citing other examples with a similar result, Mr. 
M’Gillivray says, “ Many more instances might be cited, 
did time permit. Among cattle and. horses they are of 
every day occurrence 
Dr. Harvey also records many instances of similar re¬ 
sults, as having occurred in the human family—but it is 
not thought best to include them in this paper. 
This mode of impairing the purity of the blood of 
