" , 
BREEDING. 
procured him his stock, is not so perfect as other 
people’s, nor what he has before had; he is fat 
enough, but seems bound together, and is small. 
He resolves that he shall serve no more of his 
own cows, but he puts him to a cow which he 
has bought, in order to mark the results of the 
double change which he is about to effect by in- 
troducing a fresh bull and a fresh cow into his 
stock. The results prove better than his expec- 
tations. He tried the experiments in doubt, but 
he exults in the results, because he is in the way 
of regaining his lost stock. The fresh breed ex- 
hibits the size, strength, hardiness, all the good 
qualities of his best animals. He now sees the 
necessity of changing at intervals, the blood in 
breeding cattle, in order to maintain them in that 
high and palmy state which imparts the greatest 
pleasure and profit to the breeder. He is con- 
vinced that without a change of blood in its con- 
stitution, or, in other words, without crossing, 
| no breed of cattle can maintain its health and 
usefulness. 
“Convinced though he be of this position in 
regard to crossing in the same breed, still he na- 
turally asks himself, Will any kind of crossing 
produce similarly favourable results? Were any 
bull or cow used, would their progeny be as per- 
fect as that of the crosses which he has just used ? 
No reasoning can satisfy any man in the matter ; 
experiment alone must answer those questions. 
But having already made experiments and suc- 
ceeded, he may try others. He buys a bull of 
any breed different from his own. He puts him 
to one of his best cows. The result proves al- 
most a failure. The progeny is no doubt strong 
and hardy, but it is coarse, and by no means 
an improvement on his own breed. Such an ex- 
periment shows that he should not rely on a con- 
fessedly inferior bull. He then finds that the 
crossing of breeds must not be conducted in an 
indiscriminate manner, that a superior bull is 
necessary, and that a superior cow cannot secure 
him against disappointment when coupled with 
an inferior bull. 
_ “ He will try another experiment, the converse 
of the last. He now buys a cow of a different 
breed from his own, and puts his best bull to her. 
The result is much superior to the last experi- 
ment. The progeny is not so fine as his own 
pure breed, but it is superior to its mother. It 
proves a rapid grower, kind feeder, has a good 
figure and hardy constitution. He is encouraged 
to proceed a little farther—he puts a fine bull to 
a cow of this cross. He is still not disappointed; 
the progeny isstill not so fine as his own pure breed, 
but it approaches nearer in similarity to it than 
the first cross; and proceeding in this manner 
for generations, he ultimately finds that the 
coarse breed merges into his own. As he is still 
in the field of experiment, he tries the effect of a 
bull of a different breed from his own with a cow 
which is a cross between a coarse cow and a fine 
_ of his own. Instead of the cross improving 
O23 
as it did with the fine bull, it is decidedly worse 
than its sire. He receives no encouragement to 
proceed in this direction. These latter experi- 
ments prove to him, that, were it possible, from 
the course of events, that no superior cow could 
be obtained, a superior bull would in time raise 
a stock similar to himself from a cow of a differ- 
ent breed; and that this cross should either re- 
main as it is, because it is certainly a good cross, 
or it will merge, by means of a superior bull, in- 
to his own pure breed; but that, by an inferior 
bull, the cross degenerates at once.” 
In the present state of improvement, however, 
no man requires to pass through the progress of 
breeding, from a low to a prime condition ; nor 
even while modern improvement was advancing, 
did any one man pass through the whole of that 
progress. Mr. Dickson’s supposititious breeder is 
an impersonation of several or even most of the 
enterprising men by whom a chief portion of the 
existing improvement in breeds has been achiev- 
ed. Any one man has, in general, but a limited 
range of experience, and both learns from the 
operations of his neighbours, and takes advan- 
tage of the achievements of his predecessors. 
Yet though the alleged facts in Mr. Dickson’s de- 
lineation are not imaginary—though, for example, | 
the breed which he represents as having been 
brought to the highest degree of perfection is the 
short-horned, and its degeneracy is indicated by 
pursuing the breed too near akin—the principles 
embodied in his sketch, particularly those re- 
specting the effects and the alleged necessity of 
crossing, are very far from being undisputed. 
The general object of improved breeding is to 
diminish or remove the defects of live stock, and 
to acquire and perpetuate desirable properties ; 
the general art is to make such a selection of 
both males and females as is most likely to pro- 
mote the object; and the general principle is the | 
governing law of the animal kingdom,—the very 
obvious yet much forgotten maxim,—that like 
produces like, or that every variety, as well as 
species of animal, propagates its own kind. The 
simple observation, that domestic animals pro= | 
duce a progeny exactly similar to themselves, | 
formed the basis of all the proceedings of our | 
first great modern improvers of British live stock. 
Bakewell, in particular, inferred from this obser- 
vation, that, by bringing together a male and a 
female both possessed of one set of good proper- | 
ties, he should obtain these properties, perhaps 
in an increased degree, in their offspring,—and 
that by propagating from males and females of | 
the same properties through a series of genera- 
tions, he should eventually establish a breed pos- 
sessing these properties as a permanent and dis- | 
tinguishing characteristic. When he carried 
this process into effect, and found it to be suc- 
cessful, with respect first to his long-horns, and 
next to other breeds of cattle, the term “blood” 
began to be used as a designation of it ; and, in 
all subsequent periods, whenever a breed with 
