BRECCIA. 
and, when the land is beset with furze or root- 
weeds, they require to be men of the most ath- 
letic powers. See the article Parrna. 
BRECCIA. A conglomerate, composed of an- 
gular fragments of rocks imbedded in or cemented 
by siliceous, calcareous, or ferruginous matter, is 
termed breccia. In many instances the frag- 
ments and cement are so firmly united that the 
rock may be broken, cut, and polished as a whole. 
See ConGLOMERATE. 
BRECK. A breach or gap in a hedge. 
BREECHIN. The part of a draught horse’s 
harness which, while attached to the saddle and 
hooked on the shafts, enables him to push back 
the cart, or other vehicle, to which he is har- 
nessed. 
BREED. A variety of any kind of live-stock, 
particularly of the horse, the ox, the sheep, and 
the swine. Each breed is distinguished from 
other breeds by some invariable characteristics. 
BREEDER. A stock farmer, or an occupant 
| of a mixed farm, who employs much time and 
|| capital in the breeding and rearing of live-stock, 
and who uses care either to improve faulty breeds, 
or to preserve good ones from degenerating. See 
next article. 
BREEDING. The art of rapidly multiplying 
|| and of improving domestic animals. Some weal- 
thy and patriotic landlords expend much wealth, 
great patriotism, and not a little labour and 
science in improving local breeds of live-stock, in 
introducing superior breeds from other districts 
and countries, and in indoctrinating the agri- 
cultural community with enlightened principles 
in the art of breeding; but such men are bene- 
factors of their country rather than breeders, and 
must be viewed, rather as patronizing the art of 
breeding, than as taking part in any of its ordi- 
mary cares and toils. Professional farmers, who 
| labour for profit, are the only true class of prac- 
tical breeders; and, while agricultural improvers 
desire such breeds as promise to be most bene- 
ficial te a whole country, practical farmers desire 
such as will yield the largest amount of profit in 
the particular circumstances of their respective 
farms. A wise practical breeder regards his live 
| stock as an important portion of his property, 
and conducts the treatment and the increase of 
it with a direct view to the obtaining of the 
largest possible remuneration. He considers the 
nature of his farm,—whether dairy, pastoral, ara- 
ble, or mixed; its locality ; the amount and 
quality of its pasturage; the character of its 
soil; the adaptations of its climate, exposures, 
and elevations; the degree and kind of its re- 
sources for the support of stock in winter and 
spring; the markets. to which it has the most 
ready access; and the varieties and comparative 
value of pastoral produce for which these mar- 
kets maintain a demand. He will decide whe- 
ther sheep-walk, or the dairy, or grazing, or a com- 
bination of objects promises to be most suitable ; 
and will select only such principle of breeding as 
ily i 
BREEDING. 521 
subserves the department which he adopts. “The 
best beast for him is that which suits his farm 
the best; and, with a view to this, he studies, or 
ought to study, the points and qualities of his 
own cattle, and those of his neighbours. The 
dairyman will regard the quantity of milk, the 
quality, the time that the cow continues in milk, 
its value for the production of butter and cheese, 
the character of the breed for quietness, or as 
being good nurses, the predisposition to red- 
water, garget, or dropping after calving, the na- 
tural tendency to turn everything to nutriment, 
the easiness with which she is fattened when 
given up as a milker, and the proportion of food 
requisite to keep her in full milk, or to fatten 
her when dry. The grazier will consider the 
kind of beast which his land will bear, the kind 
of meat most in demand in his neighbourhood, 
the early maturity, the quickness of fattening at 
any age, the quality of the meat, the parts on 
which the flesh and fat are principally laid, and, 
more than all, the hardihood and the adaptation 
of constitution to the climate and soil.” (Yowatt.) | 
The sheep-farmer will act on analogous princi- 
ples with reference to sheep,—making his selec- | 
tions in adaptation to the situation and character 
of his farm, and with a view to produce in wool 
or in carcass ; the breeder of hogs will consider 
the adaptations of his resources to one breed 
rather than to another; and the mixed breeder | 
will take account, not only of the fitness of his 
farm for supporting particular kinds and breeds | 
of domestic animals, but of the best methods of | 
so economizing it as to maintain the most pro- | 
ductive balance between the different kinds, | 
and the most powerful reciprocity upon the fer- | 
tilizing of the soil for the produce of grain. 
The art of breeding live-stock for profit is very | 
laborious to both body and mind. The purchas- | 
ing of proper stock in the best markets, the col- | 
lecting of them from different districts into one 
farm, the managing of the offspring stock from | 
birth to maturity, and the disposing of the sur-_ 
plus in the most remunerating markets, involve | 
great bodily exertion; and the care of the large | 
capital requisite for the enterprise, the doubt | 
whether the outlay for two or three years may 
be equivalent to the risk, the uncertainty as to | 
the purchased stock producing a progeny as good 
in character as themselves, the daily solicitude | 
in rearing the progeny to maturity, the fear of | 
disaster from the attacks of disease, and the ap- | 
prehension of loss from the fall of prices, impose | 
a large degree of labour and trouble on the mind. 
Any man who begins to be a breeder, therefore, 
ought to have great powers of both bodily and 
mental endurance; nor will he ever be likely to 
enjoy much success, unless he also possess a 
large judgment and an enterprising spirit. A 
breeder who cultivates any sort of stock which 
he can most easily procure, or who rears it with 
little trouble or with merely routine care, has no 
right to expect any considerable remuneration. 
