PREFACE. 
From early times, Great Britain has been distinguished for the numbers and excellence 
of its Domestic Animals. The cultivation of the Horse began in the earlier periods of our 
history, for the purposes of war and the tournament, and has subsequently been carried to the 
highest perfection, for the race-course, the chase, the saddle, and for draught. The cultiva¬ 
tion of Sheep was early the subject of public attention, and was favoured by numerous laws, 
as being connected with the woollen manufactures of the country; and at a period compara¬ 
tively recent, extraordinary attention has been devoted to the means of cultivating animals for 
human food. It is during this latter era, which began about the middle of last century, that 
the greatest additions have been made to the value of the Live-stock of this country, and that 
the practice of breeding has been reduced to a system, and founded upon principles. 
Of the species of the Domestic Animals naturalized in the British Islands, numerous 
varieties present themselves, to which we apply the term Breeds. The characters of species 
may have been imprinted by original organization, or may have been the result of laws of 
organic development, of whose nature and operation we are ignorant. The characters which 
distinguish varieties are those which may be reasonably ascribed to the agency of known 
causes, as of climate, and the supplies of food. The differences of character, indeed, produced 
by agencies of this kind, may be very great, and, in the case of many animals, may leave the 
naturalist in doubt, whether the differences observed are the result of original organization, or 
of more recent changes. This doubt, however, will scarcely arise in the case of the larger 
Domestic Quadrupeds of this country,—the Horse, the Ox, the Sheep, and the Hog: and we 
may safely assume, that the differences which we observe in them are the result of the dif¬ 
ferent conditions as to food, temperature, and other external agents, to which they have been 
subjected. To the natural causes which produce diversities in the size, form, and other 
characters of our domestic animals, we must add those produced by art. By breeding from 
animals of certain characters, we can communicate the distinctive properties of the parents to 
the progeny, and thus multiply in a great degree the varieties to which we apply the term 
Breeds. 
In the rural economy of this country, a high degree of importance is to be ascribed to a 
knowledge of the distinctive characters of Breeds or Races. Much of the profit of breeders 
depends upon adapting the breed of any animal to the circumstances in which it is to be 
placed. By rearing, for example, a breed of large and delicate oxen, in a country unsuited, 
from its natural or artificial productions, to maintain them, we incur the hazard of loss in 
