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wishes his flock to possess, and next a very care- 
ful selection of a male who exhibits these excel- 
lencies in the fullest development, and in freedom 
from accompanying defects. If he breed, at one 
time, with the view of obtaining animals with 
one set of properties, and at another time with 
the view of obtaining animals with a different set 
of properties, he is almost certain to miss the at- 
tainment of both the sets of properties, or, at best, 
to obtain them in a very deteriorated condition. 
But if he decide on precise properties, and use 
only males which purely and prominently possess 
them, and steadily prosecute the establishment 
of them in all his stock, he is morally and even 
physically certain of becoming the owner of 
flocks which shall exhibit them in perfection. 
Yet the selected males ought not alone to pos- 
sess the desired properties full and uncontami- 
nated, but to be the descendants of a series of 
progenitors who also thus possess them ; and if 
they are themselves sires, their offspring must 
likewise and most especially thus possess them ; 
for, unless a counteracting power can be dis- 
tinctly ascribed to the dams, the offspring al- 
ready existing is, in all respects, a type of that 
which may afterwards be produced. When a 
breeder of cattle, as usually happens, has not a 
sufficiently numerous flock to need more than 
one bull, he ought to observe well what faults 
are most prevalent among his cows, and to use 
all circumspection that none of these faults exist 
in the male which he selects; for unless he use 
these precautions, he may not only perpetuate 
but seriously augment the defects which depre- 
ciate his stock. When a farmer breeds upon a 
large scale, and uses several males at once, he 
can, with nicer aim and more certain effect, con- 
duct the work of improvement; and he ought 
probably to select his males with slightly differ- 
ent groupings of good properties, and to appro- 
priate each male to a specific or classified num- 
ber of females with studied design to correct or 
remove particular imperfections. Most breeders 
of sheep use more than one ram; and all who 
make even moderate endeavours to improve their 
flocks, assign to each ram those and only those 
ewes whose defects are most likely to be reduced 
by his characteristic excellencies. 
Lord Spencer’s rules for the selection of males, 
though in some degree a repetition of what we 
briefly stated on the subject of “points,” are 
well worthy of being quoted. “The first things 
to be considered in the selection of a male ani- 
mal are the indications by which it may be pos- 
sible to form a judgment as to his constitution. 
In all animals a wide chest indicates strength of 
constitution; and there can be no doubt that 
this is the point of shape to which it is most ma- 
terial for any breeder to look in the selection 
either of a bull oraram, In order to ascertain 
that the chest of these animals is wide, it is not 
sufficient to observe that they have wide bosoms; 
but the width which is perceived by looking at 
ri 
BREEDING. 
them in the front should be continued along the 
brisket, which ought to show great fulness in the 
part which is just under the elbows; it is also 
necessary that they should be what is called thick 
through the heart, Another indication of a good | 
constitution is, that a male animal should have 
a masculine appearance: with this view, a cer- 
tain degree of coarseness is by no means objec- 
tionable, but this coarseness should not be such 
as would be likely to show itself in a castrated 
animal, because it thus might happen that the 
oxen or wethers produced from such a sire would 
be coarse also, which in them would be a fault. 
Another point to be attended to, not merely as an 
indication of a good constitution, but as a merit 
in itself, is, that an animal should exhibit great 
muscular power, or rather that his muscles | 
should be large. This is an usual accompani-— 
ment of strength of constitution, but it also 
shows that there will be a good proportionate 
mixture of lean and fat in the meat produced 
from the animal, the muscles being that part 
which in meat is lean. A thick neck is, in both 
bulls and rams, a proof of the muscles being | 
large, and there can hardly be a greater fault in | 
the shape of a male animal of either sort, than | 
his having a thin neck. I am inclined to say, 
that in the new Leicester breed of sheep, which 
is the breed to which I am accustomed, a ram’s 
neck cannot be too thick. Other indications of 
muscle are more difficult to observe in sheep than | 
in cattle. In a bull there ought to be a full 
muscle on each side of the back-bone, just be- | 
hind the top of the shoulder-blades; he ought | 
also to have the muscles on the outside of the | 
thigh full, and extending down nearly to the 
hough. It will seldom happen that a bull having | 
these indications will be found deficient in muscle. | 
As I am writing for the use of farmers, it is quite 
unnecessary for me to attempt to give a descrip- 
tion of what is considered a well-shaped bull or 
ram ; it is also obviously impossible to express in | 
words what is meant by good handling. It is 
sufficient to say, therefore, that no male animal 
is fit to be used at all as a sire whose handling is 
not good, and that the more perfect his shape is 
the better.” 
The system of breeding within near degrees of 
consanguinity, or, in farmers’ language, of breed- 
ing in-and-in, so as to perpetuate a stock of sheep 
or cattle solely from its own bulls and rams, has 
been the topic of much discussion, and was long 
the subject of divided and unsettled opinion. 
The degrees of consanguinity vary according to 
the size and circumstances of different flocks; 
but may, in a general view, be regarded as strictly 
parallel to those which prohibit marriage among 
the human species. The celebrated improver, 
Bakewell, after bringing his Leicester sheep and 
his long-horn cattle to perfection, always bred 
from his own stock, and thoroughly succeeded in 
preserving it from every appearance of degene- ||. 
racy. Mr. Mason of Chilton successfully pursued, | 
