524 
any valuable characteristic can be referred to a 
number of ancestors of admitted excellence, this 
term is currently and emphatically applied. The 
principle of the improving process—that every 
variety of domestic animal propagates its own 
peculiar properties—is the pervading law of all 
scientific and successful breeding, holds true with 
regard to both the male and the female, and ex- 
tends, not only to constitution, shape, and or- 
ganic peculiarities, but to nosological tendencies 
and habits, and to almost every property, no mat- 
ter how minute, which affects an animal’s economi- 
cal adaptations and market value. The exceptions 
to this law—even in spite of the seemingly dull 
and unimaginative character of the cow, the ewe, 
and some other domestic animals—are only such 
as arise from the occasional ascendency of the 
mental power over the organic operation, and, 
like the vastly more frequent exceptions in the 
human subject—more frequent, perhaps, in the 
very ratio of the superiority of the human mind 
to the brutish—must be wholly ascribed to the 
play of imagination. “ One of the most intelli- 
gent breeders I ever met with in Scotland,” says 
Mr. Boswell, “told me a singular fact with re- 
gard to what I have now stated. One of his 
cows chanced to come in season while pasturing 
on a field, which was bounded by that of one of 
his neighbours, out of which an ox jumped, and 
went with the cow, until she was brought home 
to the bull. The ox was white, with black spots 
and horned. The cow’s owner had not a horned 
beast in his possession, nor one with any white 
on it; nevertheless, the produce of the following 
spring was a black and white calf with horns.” 
A still more remarkable instance is familiar to 
most readers of sacred scripture, as having oc- 
curred in the pastoral history of Jacob. Yet, 
notwithstanding all such exceptions, the ten- 
dency of each variety of domestic animals to pro- 
| pagate its own peculiarities, down to even the 
minutest point, is so prevalent and powerful as 
to be strictly a law, and perfectly accounts, not 
only for all the successes, but also for all the 
failures and for most of the apparent anomalies, 
in the progress of breeding improvements. “ Let 
it be supposed,” remarks Youatt, “that the cat- 
tle of a certain farmer have some excellent qual- 
ities about them; but there is a defect which 
considerably deteriorates from their value, and 
which he is anxious to remove. He remembers 
that ‘like produces like,’ and he looks about for 
a bull that possesses the excellence which he 
wishes to engraft on his own breed. He tries the 
experiment, and, to his astonishment it is a per- 
fect failure—his stock, so far from improving, 
have deteriorated. The cause of this every-day 
occurrence was, that he did not fairly estimate 
the extent of the principle from which he expect- 
ed so much. This new bull had the good point 
| that was wanting in his old stock; but he too 
was deficient somewhere also; and, therefore, 
although his cattle had in some degree improved 
BREEDING. 
by him in one way, that was more than counter- 
balanced by the inheritance of his defects. Here 
is the secret of every failure,—the grand princi- 
ple of breeding. The new-comer, while he pos- 
sesses that which was a desideratum in the old 
stock, should likewise possess every good quality 
that they had previously exhibited—then, and 
then alone, will there be improvement without 
alloy.” 
Three of the good properties, or “ points,” as 
they are technically called, which breeders desi- 
derate in all the species of live stock, are rec- 
tangularity of shape, robustness of constitution, 
and tendency to rapid attainment of maturity.— 
Rectangularity of shape is not understood with 
literal exactness, and never supposes the total 
absence of curvature, or the absolute filling up of 
the angles, and is more remotely exemplified in 
some species than in others, and in some good 
varieties than in others; still, it constitutes an 
excellent abstract model, and distinctly indicates 
the development and novelties of form which are 
requisite for making increasing approximations 
to perfection. The rectangle of the side figure 
of each animal is a parallelogram, and excludes 
the head; and that of both the front figure and 
the head figure is not far from being a square. 
A full-grown ox of prime breed fills the rectan- 
gles better than any other form of cattle on a 
farm; and a fat ox fills them better than a lean 
one. A Leicester tup with full wool fills them 
better than a tup of the same breed newly clip- 
ped. The gelding fills them better than any 
other form of the horse. But the hind view of the | 
horse, unlike that of the ox, is always broader 
than the front view ; and the hind view of the 
female is broader than the hind view of the male.— 
Robustness of constitution implies good appetite, 
healthy digestion, freedom from tendencies to 
disease, great power of endurance, sturdy health, 
steady growth to maturity, and facile ability of 
performing the offices which belong to the parti- 
cular animal in the economy of the farm; and it 
is indicated by very numerous features in each 
animal, and by very diversified ones in the differ- 
ent species. The principal organs or parts of the 
body, particularly the lungs, the chest, the pel- 
vis, the head, the neck, the muscles, and the 
bones, must be carefully considered in order to 
secure the possession and the due balance of the 
desirable properties. The comparative largeness 
of the lungs determines the comparative strength 
and health of the whole constitution,—it deter- 
mines, in particular, the comparative power of 
taking up nourishment from food, and the com- 
parative facility and rapidity of fattening; and 
it is therefore of very great importance, and is 
itself determined, or rather indicated, by the ex- 
ternal form and size of the chest. The capacity 
of the chest depends more on its form than on 
the extent of its external circumference; for it 
may have an equal circumference in two animals, 
and yet enclose much larger lungs in the one 
