CHAPTER IV.

IMPROVEMENT OF THE BREEDS.

(63.) This subject requires for its due consideration some slight attainments in anatomy and physiology, but as such attainments, slight though they may be, are as rarely met with as required among the bulk of mankind, so the want of them may be the less regretted, seeing it is possible to render even the intricacies of the study plain and simple, by an appeal to facts of every-day occurrence; which, having attracted the notice of the most unthinking, will serve as hooks on which I shall try to hang the better part of an interesting inquiry.

(64.) _Early Improvers of Sheep._--There cannot be a more certain sign of the rapid advances of a people in civilization and prosperity, than increasing attention to the improvement of live-stock. It tells of a population limited in regard to soil, and making every effort to remedy the want, by an economical doubling of the return for the usual outlay: for, while a tribe wanders at large, remaining at a particular place only so long as provender holds out, and, striking the tent, departs for some far-off field, so long will their flocks be suffered to roam neglected, and flourish or decay, as chance directs.

From the time of Jacob, the possibility of determining the nature of the offspring, by impressions on the parents, has been apparent to all; and the best means of perpetuating a good quality, or removing a bad one, have continued from time to time, to occupy the attention of patriotic individuals. As much appears to have been known about sheep two thousand years ago as at present, so true is it, that nothing new is to be met with; yet, that does not rob our modern improvers of their merits, for though they deserve little as inventors, they are to be admired for that strength of mind, and determined perseverance, which enabled them to rouse their fellows from their lethargy, and compel them to become in turn, benefactors of their country, and themselves. The signs of a good ram are concisely laid down by Varro, by Virgil in his third Georgic, and by Columella; and, though the Spanish nobility were looked upon with wonder, (till eclipsed by our own extravagance,) in giving two hundred ducats, or fifty pounds for a ram; yet Strabo assures us, that in his day (under Tiberius), they gave more than three times that sum for one of the breed of the Coraxi, a Pontic nation, believed to have the finest fleece in the world.

The greatest recorded improvers of the sheep in ancient times were Lucius Columella, and his uncle Marcus Columella, Spaniards of distinction, who removed to Rome in the reign of Tiberius, and made agriculture the study and business of their lives. The former commenced his celebrated treatise on husbandry during the reigns of Tiberius, and Caligula, and appears to have finished it A.D. 55. It is a work which may be read with advantage even at present, as it abounds with much that is valuable, and is accessible to all through its English translation.[10]

[10] I allude to this, as the author of the work on Sheep, published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, at page 123 of that book, laments the want of an English translation of Columella. An excellent quarto translation of his twelve books on Husbandry, and one on Trees, was published at London, in 1745.

(65.) _Modern Breeders._--It is only within a very recent period, that the mode of improving live-stock by skilful breeding, has been properly attended to. The perfection of breeding formerly, was to have cows in calf once a-year, and rear calves on as little milk as possible; and, even yet, there are only a scattered few who devote to it the attention it requires. The first, in modern times, who arrived at any thing like eminence in this department, was Joseph Allom, of Clifton, who raised himself by dint of industry, from a ploughboy, and for a long time contrived to keep his methods secret, being supposed by many to have bought his ewes in Lincolnshire, at the very time he was constantly bringing them from the Melton quarter of Leicestershire. Though possessing talent, he does not appear to have had education enough to avail himself of it, and accordingly never gained the extensive popularity which fell to the lot of his successors.

As the introducers of new and important plans of management in agriculture, are always rewarded by large profits, and the gratitude of their countrymen, so none were ever more generously dealt with in either respect, than Mr Robert Bakewell, of Dishley, and Mr Ellman, of Glynde. The former, who may be said to have created a _variety_, considered that a tendency to acquire fat was the first quality to be looked to in an animal destined for the food of man; and on this, with him a fundamental principle, was based the whole of his proceedings. Different opinions will of course be held on the merits of the theory on which he acted but all must acknowledge, that we are indebted to his skill and experience, for the exertions which have been subsequently made to improve the qualities of live-stock, in every district of the kingdom. It was by his example, in fact, that the farmers all over the country were stimulated to exertion, and be the system bad or good, it ought to have our veneration, seeing that it was the commencement of a new and most important agricultural era.

John Ellman derives his well-earned fame, from the zealous manner in which he improved the Southdown sheep, and spread them through the empire. Till he directed his attention to the subject, every thing connected with the management of the flock was left to chance, or at least to the guidance of farm-servants, with whom, of course, it could not be a matter of interest to select, or _sort_, suitable animals for the continuance of the race. He speedily, however, corrected this mismanagement, and aided by the introduction of turnip-feeding, in no long time, and without any admixture of foreign blood, materially improved the breed.

About seventy years ago, improvements also commenced in Scotland. Till then, in many parishes, no farmer could keep sheep through the winter, and no place was reckoned so fatal to these animals as the undrained, and unsheltered parish of Eskdale-Muir, in Dumfriesshire. At last one William Bryden rented the farm of Aberlosk, and soon, by the _original_ plan of draining, and building stone enclosures, made it, to use the words of his able biographer, Mr Scot of Selkirkshire, "like the land of Goshen, good for cattle which it is to this day."

(66.) _Varieties among Animals._--All organized matter is subject to variety. It may be doubted whether, since the creation of the world, there have ever occurred, either at the same, or at separate periods, two individuals in every respect perfectly alike. A plant, or an animal, may resemble the rest of its species in chemical constitution, and in the number and situation of its organs, but is sure to differ from all in size, general configuration, and disposition of its parts: These shades of difference, endless though they are, may be referred to two leading causes--climate and descent; the former embracing deviations induced by temperature and resources of subsistence; the latter including changes occasioned by management, modes of breeding, and influence of sex.

(67.) _Varieties induced by Temperature._--The influence of temperature extends chiefly to the _colour_ and _development_ of animals. In cold regions the skin of the human race is fair, and the person squat and stunted, but as we approach the equator, the hue becomes deeper and deeper, till it is jetty black, while at the same time, the stature attains nearer and nearer to the tallest proportions to which mankind seem naturally entitled. The animals of the arctic regions are, for the greater part of the year, covered with a clothing of the purest white, which is, however, in many of them, abandoned for one of deeper tints as the solar heat begins to gain the ascendant. But how very different do we not find the colours of intertropical animals. There vivid tints, and an almost metallic lustre, pervade animated beings, from the coral in its submarine abode, to the gallinaceous birds, the coxcombs of the forest. In this, as in every other department of nature, the most beautiful harmony, or, in other words, a union of what is pleasing to the eye, and suited for the comfort of the creature, every where prevails. The colour of an animal envelope is never at variance with the tints of surrounding objects. A painter, for example, would not place a flower or animal of brilliant hue amidst the monotonous aspect of an arctic landscape; neither would he picture the faintly-tinted beings of a polar latitude, as surrounded by the warm and flashy colouring characteristic of an oriental climate. As temperature, then, determines in a marked degree the colour and dimensions of every animal, such variations render the division of living beings into races and varieties, a matter of necessity. Thus all human beings belong only to one species, which may, however, be divided into five races, and these again into an infinity of varieties. The differences between a race and a variety are, that the latter is a subdivision of the former, and that in the former the modifications are more profound, the changes not being confined to the surface, but extending to the frame-work of the body; whereas, to constitute a variety, nothing more is necessary than the superficial influence of heat and light on the skin, and its appendages the hairs. The Negro and the Abyssinian are precisely similar in colour, yet they are by no means of the same race, as their different features will distinctly prove; the Abyssinian approaching as much in cast of countenance to the European, as the negro does to the higher orders of the ape. The same may be noticed among sheep, but this is sufficient for the present.

The changes induced by climate, result from the working of a power inherent in most animals and vegetables, by which they are suited within certain limits, for bearing up against removal from their ordinary localities, and assuming a different cast, as the place of their exile may differ in degree from that which they have left. This gradual adaptation to circumstances by an accommodating power is termed, in philosophical language, acclimation.

(68.) _Adaptation of the Sheep to Climate._--No animal varies more than the sheep, and none so speedily adapts itself to climate; it would almost appear that nature, convinced of its great utility, had bestowed upon it a constitution so pliant, as to enable it to accommodate itself to any point in a wide scale of temperature; for though its natural situation as a wool-bearing animal, like that of man appears to be the wine countries, yet with him, it has spread to every quarter of the globe, becoming impressed at every change with some peculiarity, alterable only by a change of situation, and varying, we might almost affirm, with the weather; for, where the temperature is equable, there does the animal preserve unchanged an atmospheric stamp, and defies our efforts to alter the breed; while under a fluctuating sky we can model it at will, though in this case, continued exertions are required to secure them for any length of time in an undeviating course.

(69.) _Changes produced by Climate._--The wonderful power of temperature in effecting changes upon animals, is well illustrated by the Portuguese, who, after a residence of three hundred years in India, are said to be at present almost as black as Caffres. Bishop Heber, speaking of India, says, "It is remarkable to observe how surely all these classes of men (whites--Persians, Greeks, Tartars, Turks, and Arabians), in a few generations, even without any inter-marriage with the Hindoos, assume the deep olive tint, little less dark than a negro, which seems natural to the climate." Buchanan also in his travels through the same country, alludes to a tribe of black Jews who have, in all probability, been settled in the district ever since the period of the captivity under Nebuchadnezzar, 3000 years ago, and who retain all the national peculiarities of their race, with the exception of their colour, which is now as dark as that of the surrounding tribes. These examples, however, it may be affirmed, are not to the point, as embracing theories in regard to peculiar changes in an animal different from the sheep, but such objections are perfectly groundless, as what will affect colour in mankind, will lead to changes even of a more wonderful nature in the sheep, seeing that it is abandoned more entirely to such an influence.

(70.) _Temperature preferred by Sheep._--Sheep, though capable of thriving in a great variety of climates, seem to prefer such as are temperate, and in these only do they arrive at perfection. They are common on the Cordilleras at an elevation of from 3300 to 8200 feet, within which limits they propagate readily without any care; but the reverse is the case in hotter regions, it being difficult to rear lambs in the plains of Meta, and no sheep are to be met with from the river to the foot of the Cordilleras, though their skins, from being in demand for making parchment, sell as high as those of the ox. Sheep were at one time, according to Thunberg, the scarcest articles in Batavia, as their woolly coat rendered the heat of the climate quite insupportable; but this inconvenience was at last remedied by sending them, on their arrival from the Cape, further up the country, to the Blue Mountains, where the air is several degrees colder. The question then naturally occurs, if an elevation of temperature is, as in this instance, fatal to these animals, how do they happen to have spread over a vast tract of country in spite of such extremes? Simply for the reason, that when an animal is left to the exercise of its own free will, and the dominion of its instincts, it will not subject itself to the danger of an extreme in any thing. It will not traverse several hundred miles in a single season, and thus expose itself to sudden changes. The natural dispersion of all animals is gradual, so that their constitutions are enabled, from the slowness of the transition, to accommodate themselves, by an alteration in covering and habit, to surrounding circumstances, which would, were the variations abrupt, speedily destroy it. The reason why a race of animals occasionally thrives so well in a country to which it may be removed, appears to lie in its being suited, I may say, accidentally, by peculiar conformation, to the temperature to which it is transplanted. There are some happy climates where, introduce what animals you will, no matter how stunted they are, or how different the degree of warmth may be, their offspring will thrive, proving large and vigorous, and every way worthy of being placed at the head of its species. These are, however, cases where the transition is from an extreme of heat or cold to a temperate atmosphere. Witness what Mr Dawson, the manager of the Australian Agricultural Company, says in his private journal (quoted in _Cunningham's New South Wales_). "Both the climate and the soil appear by nature intended to produce fine wool, and fine animals too, _even from the worst beginnings_. The latter seems a paradox. The extensive range afforded to every animal keeps it in good condition, and, perhaps, the natural grasses may have more of good in them than their appearance indicates. However this may be, the climate clearly has a wonderful effect on the size of all animals, even upon man, who is universally tall here, though born of diminutive parents. From this I am led to believe, that the climate governs chiefly, and thus every breeding animal introduced here will attain a size not known in Europe."

(71.) _Extent of the Alterations produced by Climate._--Changes occasioned by climate are always limited to the fleece, horns, and disposal of the fat, and never extend to those parts, on the permanence of which the animal depends for its station in the scale of being, as the feet, teeth, and digestive organs. In tropical countries we find the fleece approaching more to hair than wool, as in the sheep of Thibet, so celebrated for the silky nature of their coat. Burchell remarks, that the skins he brought from the Cape of Good Hope were often taken for those of an unknown quadruped, from the _furry_ nature of their wool, if such it can be called, and thinks it is owing as much to the pasture, which is well adapted for giving these animals a soft and useful _fur_, though not suited, like New South Wales, for the growth of the finest wool, and that the colony might turn this to great advantage. In cold regions the hairy covering is more developed and fully coarser, but always mingled with a proportion of hard rough wool. The influence of climate on portions of the fleece and skin is well illustrated by circumstances which have occurred in Galloway, even within the limits of our traditionary writings.[11] The native sheep of the Highlands of that district is supposed to have been a small, handsome, _white-faced_ breed; at least so thinks John MacLellan, who wrote an account of Galloway in 1650, from the wool being much praised, and eagerly bought up by merchants, which would not have been the case if taken from the _black-faced_ animal; yet how happens it that at present the native breed exists only in the lower parts of Kirkcudbrightshire, the high country exhibiting _black-faced_ sheep, which, after every trial, have been found best adapted to the climate, and pasture of the moors and Highlands; while Chalmers owns that it has not been ascertained when or whence this hardy breed were brought to their present locality? Why, it is tolerably plain, that though the _white-faced_ sheep might be placed there originally, yet they would speedily lose every trace of their origin, and become _black-faced_ when placed on a hilly country, and subjected to the slow but certain influence of peculiar food and climate.

[11] Chalmers' Caledonia--Article, Galloway.

Mr Culley imagines, that the dun-faced sheep were the earliest tenants of the Scottish hills, but so far as my researches extend, that supposition is entirely contradicted. Chalmers remarks, that the black-faced animals superseded the goats, which were at one time a source of subsistence to the farmers, and it is exceedingly probable, that as the old white-faced began to change their appearance, and became gradually able to withstand the rigours of a mountain fare, and winter under a dun skin, and short rough wool, so would they recommend themselves as the best of all stock to the hard-driven agriculturalist.

(72.) _Increase of the Number of the Horns._--As much wonder is sure to be excited by the fact, that bony prominences are subjected with as great certainty to the modelling hand of climate as softer parts, I give the following from a recent work, entitled, "_Gardens and Menagerie of the Zoological Society Delineated_," premising, however, that, in my opinion, temperature has a vast deal more to do with alterations in the horns than domestication or cultivation. "One of the most curious modifications produced by cultivation in the domesticated sheep consists in the augmentation of the number of its horns; two, three, or even four supplementary appendages of this description being occasionally produced in addition to the normal number. Under these circumstances the additional horns usually occupy the upper and fore part of the head, and are of a more slender shape, and take a more upright direction than the others, thus approaching in character to those of the goats, while the true horns retain more or less of the spiral curve that distinguishes those of the sheep. There exists a strong tendency to the propagation of this monstrosity, which is extremely frequent in the Asiatic races, but is also met with in a breed that is common in the north of Europe, and is said to have been originally derived from Iceland, and the Feroe Islands. In this case it is unconnected with any other anomaly, but in the flocks of the nomad hordes of Tartary, it is usually combined with an enlargement of the tail, and adjacent parts, by the deposition of fat, frequently to an enormous extent."

(73.) _Causes of the various forms of the Horn._--Horns are seldom met with in the sheep of hot climates, occurring more frequently in cold and temperate regions; thus following closely the development of the other coverings, to which, as before stated (19), they are strictly analogous. The fleece consists of two portions--hair and wool, the one predominating more or less over the other, as the climate may direct. The form of the horns is always in unison with the character of the fleece: thus, if the animal is covered with hair, as in the goat, the horns will be straight; but if it is clothed with wool, as in the sheep, the horns will be curved. The same holds good in other animals. The reason of this appears to lie in the tendency which the hair or wool, constituting the horny sheath, has to model the form of the supporting bone. The fibre of hair is nearly straight; that of wool is, on the other hand, remarkable for the number of tufted curls, or small spiral ringlets, into which it naturally contracts; so that a Merino ram, for example, will never be found with rectilinear horns, nor a true goat with twisted ones. The truth of these remarks is borne out by observations on animals on whose heads more than two horns are occasionally met with. We always in such instances notice, that the additional horns are straight, thus indicating the presence of a considerable quantity of hair among the wool. The curve will be more decided, and the twists more numerous, in proportion as the fibre comes nearer and nearer to a perfect wool--evidence of which we have in the beautifully-tufted and spiral horns of the Merino ram, which are as opposite in this respect to those of the goat, as is its fleece to the hairy coat of the latter. From these considerations I am led to believe, that the form of the horn, when present, is an excellent guide to the nature and quality of the other coverings, and an index to every gradation which can possibly occur between wool and hair.

(74.) _The proper Temperature required for Sheep._--Regular warmth is absolutely necessary for the production of a good animal and a fine fleece, and is only to be obtained by attending to the draining and clearing of land, so as to dissipate moisture, and allow currents of air to play freely across the country.[12] An atmosphere which holds suspended a large quantity of watery vapour, is always extremely chilling to an animal body. This is accounted for by the well-known fact, that a moist air, being a better conductor of caloric than a dry one, robs an animal more quickly of heat. Thus, in passing from the dry air of the hills into the vapour of the valleys in a winter morning, we feel as if the transition had been from a temperate to an icy region. Hence one of the reasons why sheep thrive best in a rather elevated situation. Moist air, however, is exceedingly oppressive in hot weather, because evaporation, from the surface of the body, is to a great extent diminished; and it is only by the perspiration being allowed to escape rapidly, and to convey away the heated particles, that we can manage to be in any degree comfortable during the heat of summer. This free evaporation we endeavour in every way to obtain, and often in a manner that ignorant people would consider as the reverse of sensible. It is well known that draughts of _cold liquids_ are very far from answering the purpose of lowering our temperature when above a pleasant standard; but we find that a basin _of hot soup, or tea_, will speedily bring about the desired end, by producing a copious determination of fluid to the skin. Yet, if the air contained no moisture, we should experience sensations just as unpleasant as those already mentioned; for evaporation from our bodies would proceed at such a rate, that we would soon be parched. It is to counteract this tendency of dry air that the Americans are in the habit of placing a small vessel of water on their stoves, by which contrivance a quantity of vapour is diffused through the apartment, sufficient to balance the loss from the arid warmth of the fire.

[12] It is to secure equality of temperature that the Spanish flocks are twice in the year exposed to the hazard of an overland journey of 400 miles, that they may pass the summer in the mountains of the north, and the winter in the southern plains.

That an equable temperature is only to be obtained by draining and clearing a marshy and wooded country, is sufficiently authenticated. In the thickly wooded and swampy territories of Guiana, rain falls continually during nearly eight months of the year; and the cold is so intense, that fires are necessary in the houses throughout the night. But in Cayenne and its neighbourhood, which were cleared of wood about one hundred and fifty years ago, the increase of temperature is now so great, that during the night the people are annoyed by the warmth, and the rains are neither so frequent nor so heavy as in the rest of the country. Paris and Quebec are nearly under the same latitude; yet the air of the latter is much colder than that of the former, evidently from its being surrounded by forests so dense and umbrageous, that sun and wind are alike denied access to the earth. The difference between a cleared and an uncleared country, in regard to wool, is well illustrated, by contrasting North America, its heavy woods and stagnant atmosphere, with the thinly timbered surface and constantly renovated air of New South Wales. It is only within the last few years that Canada has been enabled to compete with Britain in the article of wool, and that the sheep, which were of the coarsest kind, have been so improved as to do away with the prejudices against their mutton. Australia, on the other hand, has, from its earliest colonization, figured as a sheep-rearing country of the first importance; and nothing has conduced so much to this as its freedom from closely planted trees, by the absence of which the settler is enabled at once to stock his farm with the best of sheep. Nature, in fact, could never have intended sheep to pasture in a wooded country, as is clearly evinced by their coat, to which every thing in the shape of bush or tree is in the highest degree inimical.

(75.) _Geographical limits of the Sheep._--Every plant and animal has certain geographical limits, out of which it cannot exist. With the exception of man and the dog, no animal has a wider range than the sheep, extending as it does from Iceland almost to the equator, and from a few degrees south of that to the polar extremity of South America. But though existing under so great a variety of exposures, it must not be inferred that it can come to perfection in them all. On the contrary, it rather delights in the temperate zones, and can evidently only be raised to its highest point of excellence in the countries of the vine. The western parts of continents produce better sheep than the eastern, and the southern hemisphere better than the northern; as in the former situations the temperature is more nearly equable than in the latter. The same may be said of maritime districts, as compared with such as are inland. Temperature is affected in the same way by elevation as by northern or southern position--the mean heat diminishing in the same ratio when ascending a mountain, as in receding from the equator. On this account, Humboldt compared the earth to two mountains with their bases at the equator, and their summits at the poles. The mean temperature, when resulting from the height of the place above the level of the sea, is at the same time influenced by the nature of the aspect, as we notice in the Alps, where the Glacier exists on the northern side, at the same elevation at which the vineyard yields a perfect fruit upon the southern.

(76.) _Particular forms induced by certain limits._--The character which a predominance of heat, or cold, impresses on the animal as a whole, extends also to individual parts of the body. The sheep of South Africa are, as all the world know, remarkable for the magnitude of the tail, which forms an immense fatty appendage. The sheep of Persia, Tartary, and China, are distinguished from all others by the tail forming a _double globe_ of fat. The North of Europe, and North of Asia, are overrun by a breed in which the tail is almost wanting, while that of Southern Russia, India, and Guinea, stands pre-eminent from the elongation of the tail, and, in respect to that of the two last named places, also of the legs.

(77.) _Influence of vegetation on form and disposition._--Vegetation influences, to a great extent, the form and disposition of the animal. Such changes may be brought about either by the plenty, or scarceness, of the herbage; or by the nature of the country on which that herbage is produced. Animals found on hilly countries are always widely different from those of the plains. Their bodies are light, their legs long, and their habits of that unquiet kind which renders them hostile to any thing like restraint. It is for these reasons, that when once a flock attaches itself to a range of hills, and becomes suited to the means of subsistence, it may preserve itself for ages apart from neighbouring varieties, and present, after a long series of years, those qualities in their native purity for which it was noted by the earliest observers. The sheep of a level country are distinguished, on the contrary, by heavy bodies, short legs, and easy tempers. They are, in fact, constructed on Dutch proportions, and are imbued, as a natural consequence, with those imperturbable and steady-going habits so characteristic of the bulbous bottomed Hollander. Subdued as they are by the nature of their locality, they readily submit to man, who tutors them at will, and works on them those profitable changes from which have originated our improved varieties. As connected with the unquiet dispositions of hill sheep, I may mention the prevalence of a notion, that domesticated sheep cannot by any possibility become wild. From all that I have seen, and read, I am led to believe, though the sheep, according to Greek, Roman, and Oriental philosophers, was the first animal domesticated, that when at liberty it will soon return to its primitive and instinctive habits. Bonnycastle, in his work on Spanish America, remarks, that sheep are found in a state of nature, in the northern parts of New Spain, "having multiplied to an extraordinary degree in the wide-spread plains, and savannahs." In ascending our Scottish mountains, every one must observe the state bordering upon wildness, in which the sheep appear, roving in detached but well-led parties; bounding away to the most inaccessible places on the approach of danger, and peering from the eminences in all the pride of scornful independence. Professor Blumenbach at one time doubted the possibility of domestic sheep ever becoming wild; but his opinion was changed on perusing the work of Vincentius, where there occurs a remarkable passage, in which Nearchus, when speaking of the desert island of Cataia, on the coast of Caramania, says, that the inhabitants of the neighbouring islands yearly carried thither sheep, as offerings to Venus and Mercury, and that, in course of time, they became wild in the deserts.[13] Constant attendance is, therefore, called for on the part of man, to ensure that untroubled reliance on his care so conducive to the welfare of the flock, for even on a temporary cessation of his protection, those instincts, which can be subdued but not eradicated, are brought into operation, and their presence will go far to retard the advancement of those qualities, on the perfection of which a profit can alone be hoped for.

[13] Edin. Philosophical Journal.

(78.) _Breeds required for Britain._--Of the numerous breeds at present in our island, a few only are indispensably necessary for the continuance of its prosperity. These stand, according to Marshall, thus:--A very long-woolled sheep, as the Lincolnshire, or Teeswater, for the richest grass lands, and finest worsted manufactures--the New Leicester, for less fertile grass land, and for rich enclosed arable land, on which the fold is not used; intended to supply coarser worsted, stockings, coarse cloths, blankets, and carpets--a middle-woolled breed, as the Wiltshire, the Norfolk, or the Southdown, for arable lands on which folding is practised, and for cloths of middle qualities--a fine-woolled, as the Ryeland, for the finest cloths; and a hardy race for heathy mountains.

Some argue, and rightly, that only three breeds are necessary for Scotland, inasmuch as only three are required by the nature of the country. Scotland may be regarded, in an agricultural point of view, as divided into highland, upland, and plain. The highland consists of primitive rocks, covered by peaty soil and heath, on which these indefatigable gleaners, the black-faced sheep, alone can gain a subsistence. The upland is formed by the transition series of rocks, covered with grass; and to it the Cheviots appear indigenous. The plain is formed by alluvial deposits, covered with rich pasture, and capable of supporting races of large sheep, as the Leicesters.

Sheep are the only kind of live-stock which ought to be kept in mountainous districts, especially when green crop cannot be cultivated. Sheep-farming must necessarily prevail in the Highlands, where there are few tracts suited for the pasturage of black cattle: The value of its adaptation to the natural circumstances of that district is proved by the rapid progress which it made, and the profits which resulted to the individuals with whom it originated. Places which formerly were not of the slightest utility, now yielded heavy rents. The spots among the mountains, susceptible of cultivation, were found to be advantageously kept in grass, to serve as pasture for the flock during the rigour of winter, and it was well ascertained that more than double rent might be paid by stocking with sheep in preference to cattle.

The Dishley sheep are excellent specimens of what may be done with the form of an animal, when the endeavours of the breeder are seconded by a pasture suitable for the intended breed. They are admirably adapted, as every breed ought to be, to the soil and situation where they were called into existence; and their crosses are now spread over most part of the country; principally the corn districts, as they are supposed to be the most profitable kind on farms where the best tillage crops are combined with the fattening of livestock, though Marshall supposes they will only be reckoned profitable so long as other breeds of long-woolled sheep remain with thin chines, and loose mutton; or, in other words, that there are plenty of kinds which would prove equal, if not superior, to the present, if they only received the same studied attention.

(79.) _Varied nature of the food of Sheep._--Sheep will take, sometimes from choice, sometimes from necessity, to food of a directly opposite nature to what they have been used. "The mutton," says the Rev. George Low, writing of Orkney, "is here in general but ordinary, owing to the sheep feeding much on sea-ware, to procure which these creatures show a wonderful sagacity, for no sooner has the tide of ebb begun to run, but they, though at a great distance, immediately betake themselves full speed, one and all, to the shore, where they continue till it begins to flow." The sheep of Iceland are content during severe winters to feed, and be preserved, on messes of chopped fish-bones, being all that the ingenuity of their masters can provide in the way of a precarious sustenance. During the long continuance of snow-storms, when the herbage is beyond the reach of their utmost efforts, sheep are known to devour the wool on each other's backs, and, in some instances to acquire a relish for this unnatural food, which adheres to them through life. This, though on first thoughts hardly credible, is scarcely more wonderful than the partiality which cows display, when instigated by the depraved appetites created by pregnancy, for blankets, and any similar domestic articles which may be exposed to the gratification of their longings.

The Puruk sheep of Ladusk, in the Himalaya mountains, is, as described by Mr Moorecraft, in the _Transactions of the Asiatic Society_, in respect to the varied nature of its food, a most remarkable animal. "The Puruk sheep, if permitted, thrusts its head into the cooking pot, picks up crumbs, is eager to drink the remains of a cup of broth, and examine the hand of its master for barley, flour, or a cleanly picked bone, which it disdains not to nibble; a leaf of lettuce, a peeling of turnip, the skin of the apricot, give a luxury; and the industry is indefatigable with which this animal detects, and appropriates substances, so minute and uninviting as would be unseen and neglected by ordinary sheep; perhaps the dog of the cottager is not so completely domesticated as it is." That Mr Moorecraft is correct in this statement of its omnivorous propensities, there cannot be the slightest doubt, as any farmer can testify from what he has seen of lambs reared by children for amusement. The celebrated John Hunter showed, that a pigeon might be made to live on flesh, and that its stomach became adapted to the nature of this food: and I have somewhere read of a sheep, which, after being long on ship-board, and accustomed, from scarcity of vegetables, to an animal diet, could never after be prevailed upon to take to grass. Nor need these circumstances excite surprise, since the food of every living creature is, for a certain period at the commencement of existence, limited to such as is purely animal. But to keep to our subject. Those in the habit of opening the stomachs of sheep, must have remarked the eroded appearance which the inner coat occasionally presents. This phenomenon is owing to the action of the gastric juice, which, if competent to turn at once from the food with which it is mingled to attack the texture which has secreted it, will also be, during life, capable of digesting with tolerable ease, such dead animal matter as may be brought into contact with it.

In regard to vegetable food, they will, when necessary, devour such as is even of an acrid nature, and calculated to poison any animals but themselves. Thunberg, while in Southern Africa, frequently noticed sheep eating, with impunity, the _Mortimia acris_, the _Rhus lucidum_, and the _Lycium afrum_, which are all of a poisonous nature; and, in this country, hemlock is known to be quite innocuous to sheep. What is poison to one animal often constitutes a wholesome food for others, and that which will, when given in immediate large doses, destroy an animal, will, when taken in a gradually-increasing allowance, prove extremely salutary.

(80.) _Influence of the food on the quality of Mutton._--Diet has a powerful influence on the constituents of the body. A rank succulent pasture taints the flesh, or renders it insipid and unpleasant, while a dry aromatic herbage communicates a delightful flavour, and enables people versed in the pleasures of the table easily to discriminate between turnip-fed and grass-fed mutton; and again, between the latter, and that which has spent its existence on the hills. In Touchwood's Syllabus of Culinary Lectures, appended to the _Cook and Housewive's Manual_, by Mistress Dods, we are briefly informed, that "the black-faced, or short-sheep, are best for the table, though _more depends on the pasture than the breed_." More, in fact, depending on feeding and management, than on the variety of the animal, though this of course is not to be neglected. A notion has been advanced in this country, that artificial pastures are less nutritious than natural ones, and that the animals which are raised upon them are, consequently, of a laxer fibre, and the flesh less wholesome, as well as less savoury. This, I have no doubt, is perfectly correct, as many _diseases_ may be traced to such improper food, and what is calculated to produce in some cases actual disease, cannot fail to prove at all times capable of retarding the advancement of the animal. These soft succulent pastures appear not to be positively poisonous, but to be negatively so from their deficiency in saline matter; the rapid growth of the plant preventing the elimination and absorption, of many of these ingredients with which the soil abounds. This is proved by the greater necessity which exists for the use of salt in the food of the herbivorous animals of hot climates, than in that of such as inhabit temperate, or cold latitudes; vegetation being in the former more rapid in its details, and in certain states of the atmosphere hurried in the extreme, while in the latter the process proceeds with that leisure which enables the plant to make good the measure of its constituents, as it increases in size. In many parts of North America it is well known, that, at certain seasons, the wild animals make eagerly for the salt _licks_; and, following up this hint, the settlers easily induce their oxen to keep near their dwellings, by serving them periodically with salt. When the wild cattle of South America had greatly increased, it was discovered that they could not exist unless they had access to streams which had acquired brackish particles from the soil. _If salt, in places devoid of it, was not furnished to them by man, they became stunted, unfruitful, and the herds soon disappeared._ Even in this country, the free use of salt is found to be highly beneficial to our domestic animals, preventing the occurrence of many of those diseases which are otherwise sure to follow the use of food such as is mentioned above, and ensuring that sound health which is so conducive to the accumulation of fat.

(81.) _Differences in the quality of Mutton._--I shall now enter a little into the manner in which the _quality_ of the flesh may be affected, and the methods of judging of the different states or conditions, in which it may be found under various circumstances; premising that it requires much experience, to enable a person to pronounce with confidence, as to the value of the muscular parts, from the inspection of a living animal:--The flesh of different specimens of the same animal, varies not so much from breed or descent, as from age, feeding, and exercise. That of the young is soft and gelatinous, the fibres being small, weak, and much interspersed with a substance termed, from its loose appearance, cellular tissue. This tissue exhibits in the spaces between the muscles (_layers of flesh_) small masses of delicate fat. The greater bulk of the latter is situated immediately beneath the skin, and occasions that beautiful rotundity so much admired in children. As the animal advances in life, the fibres become firmer, larger, and more approximated, the cellular tissue disappears to a great extent, the fat shifts from the outward to the inward parts, allowing the outline of the muscles to be distinctly seen, but giving at the same time to the figure that portly symptom of good keeping, so unpleasant to the eye when carried to the extent of Aldermanic dignity. All these appearances are, however, varied by exercise, which tends, in a marked degree, to increase the muscular parts at the expense of the fat--the former becoming, when employed within proper limits, large, and unyielding to the touch, while at the same time the colour is heightened from a pale or purple hue, to the bright vermilion so justly relied upon by housewives, as a guarantee for the superior qualities of the article. The wild horses in South America, which form the principal part of Indian diet, are said by these epicures to be much improved for the table by gentle labour, and to be quite on a par when thus cared for, with some of our best beef. This plan is, however, only pursued for the purpose of rendering the flesh of their horses moderately firm; but where an opposite effect is desired it is readily, though cruelly, produced by putting the animal to a lingering death; examples of which practice are to be met with in the annals of most civilized nations; as in the German mode of whipping pigs, and the English custom of baiting bulls;[14] both tending to the same end, by so exhausting vital contractibility as to prevent its last and faint display in the stiffening of the carcass.

[14] By the old English law, no bull beef could be sold unless the bull had been baited.

Marshall, who touches very slightly on the subject, says, "The flesh of sheep when slaughtered is well known to be of various qualities: some is composed of large coarse grains, interspersed with wide empty pores, like a sponge; others of large grains, with wide pores filled with fat; others of fine close grains with smaller pores filled with fat; and a fourth of close grains without any mixture of fatness. The flesh of sheep when dressed is equally well known to possess a variety of qualities: some mutton is coarse, dry, and insipid,--a dry sponge affording little or no gravy of any colour. Another sort is somewhat firmer, imparting a light-coloured gravy only. A third plump, short, and palatable, affording a mixture of white and red gravy. A fourth likewise plump, and well-flavoured, but discharging red gravy only, and this in various quantities. It is likewise observable that some mutton, when dressed, appears covered with a thick, tough, parchment-like integument; others with a membrane comparatively fine and flexible." This membrane ought to be rather thin than thick, as, when of the latter texture, you may safely affirm that the animal was aged. _Looseness_ is reckoned a bad quality of the flesh of sheep during life, as indicating a coarse-grained porous mutton, and as equally exceptionable with that of _hardness_: while _mellowness_, and firmness, are much to be desired, as forming a happy mixture, deemed by some the point of perfection. The tendency to become fat at an early age, though a valuable one in some points, is not so in others. Premature decay is always the result, showing with certainty that a healthy action has not been going on. An animal when _loaded_ with fat cannot be looked upon otherwise than as in a diseased state, and liable to embarassment of many organs, especially of the heart and brain. Sudden death on any hurried exertion is far from rare, and life, from the difficulty of enjoying it, is any thing but desirable.

(82.) _Abuses in Feeding._--The custom of over-feeding was carried to an absurd extent on the promulgation of Bakewell's method, nothing less being aspired to than the glory of laying seven or eight inches of fat on the ribs of sheep. This folly however had its day: the ridiculous parts of the system have to a great extent disappeared, while attention to the production of an increased quantity of mutton, without too great an abundance of fat, has remained to prove to the world the value of the benefits which the English farmer conferred upon his country. Overgrown sheep are indeed good for nothing "save" in the words of Meg Dods, "to obtain premiums at cattle shows, and deluge dripping-pans with liquid fat;" and in this every one will agree, excepting always boarding-school cooks, and others who depend for their principal perquisites on the over-roasting of oily meat! The fat, though not reckoned as offal in the slaughter-house, will speedily show itself as such in the kitchen, by the waste during the cooking process, even in England where fat meat is so much admired; and it is surely absurd to pay the price of good mutton for tallow, when if the latter were really wanted, it could be procured at a cheaper rate by itself, than when forming part of a dear commodity. The only way in which over-fat meat can at all be reckoned profitable, is in its application to the wants of the working classes, whose bodily labour enables them to enjoy what would to others prove displeasing in the extreme, and to digest and assimilate with ease, food which to the sons of sloth would prove a poison. So far as these wants have been supplied, the attempt of Bakewell has been attended with the happiest results, as he and his disciples have placed by their well-spent exertions much good food within the reach of the poorer classes, which they must otherwise have gone without; while in many instances it has driven bacon from the market, being a cheaper and more palatable commodity, which cannot but contribute to the health of the people, seeing the continued use of salted meat is calculated to injure the body, and render it liable to many diseases. Marshall remarks, that fat, like charity, covers a multitude of faults: and he is right, for an ill-shaped animal if well fed, has all its angles speedily effaced, and if its ugliness has not amounted to absolute deformity, it acquires that rotundity of contour so pleasing to the eye, and so apt to mislead us.

The rapidity is various with which animals take on fat, much depending on hereditary predisposition, and the nature of the food; and much also on the state of the atmosphere, and quiet habits; a moist and rather warm air tending greatly to the advancement of the process, some birds becoming fat in twenty-four hours of wet weather. Children that have been emaciated by diseases often resume their original plump condition in a few days; and animals that have been famished, as hogs, afterwards fatten very rapidly. Moderate and repeated bleedings, mild farinaceous diet, and emasculation conjoined, tend to the repletion of the body, and to the speedy deposition of fat; yet it would appear, that when acquired in this rapid manner, it never possesses the value in a culinary point of view, that is yielded to such as has been slowly formed, when, as one may say, the worthless particles have had time to be removed, and the remaining part to become a firm and healthy deposit. It is partly owing to this, that animals are never at their best when forced to take on fat at an early age, but are most esteemed by the gourmand when they, as in the case of the sheep, have lived from three to four years.

(83.) _Tendency to acquire Fat._--A disposition to early obesity, as well as a tendency to that form which indicates a propensity to fatten, is materially promoted by a good supply of rich food, while the animal is in a growing state. The Spanish shepherds are so well aware of this, that half of the lambs are annually killed, that the survivors may obtain every indulgence in the way of milk. Care should be taken never to place animals suddenly on food much superior in feeding qualities to what they have left. Very lean sheep are never put to full turnips in winter, nor to rich pastures in summer, but are prepared for turnips on good grass lands, and kept on second years' leys, and afterwards given a moderate allowance of turnips if they are to be fatted on pastures. It is an invariable rule with all good managers, never to allow this or any other animal, reared solely for the shambles, to lose flesh from its earliest age till it is sent to the butcher as more food is necessary to bring it to a certain condition than to keep it at it. In the case of the Dishleys, it is customary to keep all in a state of fatness, except those intended for breeding, and after full feeding on turnips during winter and spring, to finish them on the first year's clover early in summer, when the prices of meat are usually the highest; so that this variety is always fit for market at eighteen months, while the Highland breeds, though prepared by means of turnips, a year at least, sooner than in former times, do not usually go to the shambles till from three to four years old.

(84.) _Frequent change of Pasture necessary._--Sheep ought never to be permitted to remain too long on one pasture:--Great benefit will be derived from their removal from time to time to different parts even of the same farm, by which arrangement a change of herbage will be ensured. No animal can be kept for any length of time in health, if restricted to one unvarying routine of diet. This has been satisfactorily proved by the experiments of Majendie, who found that health could not be sustained on one or even two kinds of food beyond the thirtieth day. Now, though such immediate injury cannot result to a flock from retention on a particular pasture, owing to the variety of sustenance being considerable, yet proportional harm will ensue sufficient to induce us not to repeat the risk. Nature, the best of guides in all that relates to the protection of her creatures, is no where more pointed in her directions than on this head. A necessity for a variety of food, and a desire to secure it, are implanted in the disposition of every animal; and where is the creature more prone to extensive rambles than the sheep? We limit it to a paltry pasture-ground of roods and acres, but does it not show, by its determination to transgress our barriers, that such is not the treatment nature has designed for it? There is something more than wildness of character, and restless disposition, in the powerful attempts it continually makes to defy our artificial boundaries. There is in these efforts a longing for fresh fields and other herbage, an instinctive feeling that all is not as it ought to be; and yet we attend not to the hint! Nothing will conduce so much to the health of the sheep, and to the speedy taking on of fat, as the frequent shifting of the flock. Disease will doubtless still affect the animals, but illness will be rare, and mortality diminished, if by the care of their rulers, they are enabled to obtain what instinct tells them is the best of medicine.

(85.) _Varieties induced by apparently trivial causes._--Surrounded in a civilized state, by all that can minister to the supply of wants, whether real or supposed, man is not on that account to be imagined as always so situated. Look to savage nations, and remark their destitute condition, their dependence on the uncertain proceeds of the chase, and their reliance on modes of agriculture as unprofitable as they are unmatured. Countries there are certainly to be found, where the "elements of temperature," are so fortunately balanced and combined as to produce only good effects, and in which the rude inhabitants reap the fruits of a spontaneous plenty; but these form only a small proportion of the globe, and in most regions man must give his unceasing endeavours to the cultivation of a plant or animal, before he can raise it from the miniature condition in which he finds it, to such a size and richness as will satisfy his wants. Nor need we go far for illustrations. The crab has been transformed into the apple, and the sloe into the plum. None of our cereal grasses, as now cultivated, are to be met with in a wild state; they have evidently been brought to their present fulness by the care of ages. The red cabbage and the cauliflower are the altered descendants of a widely different sea-side plant. The different races of cabbages are examples of a wonderful deviation from the natural type, and they all require much nicety in cultivation to prevent them assuming the characters of the original stock, as, when permitted to grow wild, especially on a sterile soil as that of the sea coast, they are sure in no long time to become exact counterparts of their originals. Cultivation, also, though taken in rather a different sense, influences to a great extent the form and features of animals. In proof of this may be adduced the differences that exist between different ranks of inhabitants in almost all countries. Buffon says, that in France you may distinguish by their aspect not only the nobles from the peasantry, but the superior orders of nobility from the inferior--these from citizens, and citizens from peasants. The African field-slaves in America, are extremely different from the domestic servants of the former nation, retaining as they do their original peculiarities from poor living and degrading duties; while the latter have nearly approached to the habits and modes of thinking of their masters, from living with them, and being well treated under the same roof. "The South Sea islanders," says Dr Elliotson, "who appear to be all of one family, vary according to their degree of cultivation. The New Zealanders, for example, are savages, and chiefly black; the New Hollanders half civilized, and chiefly tawny; the Friendly islanders are more advanced, and not quite so dark; several are lighter than olive colour, and hundreds of European faces are found among them." Indeed the examples are almost endless which I could bring forward to aid my explanations; but these it would be needless to give, since it is in the power of every one to study the differences in form and features of the classes of society in our own island, and by so doing understand the influence of otherwise trivial and unimportant circumstances, on an animal at all times so easily moulded to situation as the sheep.

(86.) _Varieties from mode of Breeding._--Changes are wrought for the most part by attention to the mode of propagation of the plant or animal, by the plan of crossing; and by careful selection of the parent stock. Every one must be struck with the varieties constantly occurring in the vegetable world: Flowers change their colours, and become double; and these characters can be perpetuated by seed. Hedge-row plants may be observed to vary even in the limits of an ordinary walk, and to be continued as varieties so long as they remain in the same locality. The following striking example of the extent to which plants may be made to vary by altering their circumstances, is related by Mr Herbert in the _Horticultural Transactions_, vol. iv:--"I raised from the natural seed of an umbel of a highly manured red cowslip, a primrose, a cowslip, oxlips of the usual and other colours, a black polyanthus, a hose-in-hose cowslip, and a natural primrose bearing its flower on a polyanthus stalk. From the seed of that very hose-in-hose cowslip, I have since raised a hose-in-hose primrose. I therefore consider all these to be only local varieties, depending upon soil and situation." "Fifty years ago," says Buffon (writing in 1749), "our pot-herbs consisted of a single species of succory, and two of lettuce, both very bad; but we have now more than fifty kinds of lettuce and succory, all of which are good. Our best fruits and nuts, which are so different from those formerly cultivated that they have no resemblance but in the name, must likewise be referred to a very modern date. In general, substances remain, and names change with times: but in this case names remain, and substances are changed. Our peaches, our apricots, our pears, are new productions with ancient names. To remove every doubt upon this subject, we have only to compare our flowers and fruits with the descriptions, or rather notices of them transmitted to us by the Greeks and Romans. All their flowers were single, and all their fruit-trees were wild stocks, and their species very ill-chosen. Their fruits of course, were small, dry, sour, and had neither the flavour nor the beauty of ours. These new and good species originally sprung from the wild kinds; but how many times have their seeds been sown before this happy effect was produced? It was only by sowing and rearing an infinite number of vegetables of the same species, that some individuals were recognized to bear better and more succulent fruit than others; and this first discovery, which supposes much care and observation, would have remained for ever useless if a second had not been made, which implies an equal degree of genius as the first required of patience--I mean the mode of multiplying by engrafting those precious individuals which unfortunately cannot propagate or transmit their excellent qualities to their posterity. * * * In the animal kingdom, most of those qualities which appear to be individual are propagated and transmitted in the same manner as their specific qualities. It was therefore more easy for man to have influence upon the nature of animals than upon that of vegetables. Particular races in any species of animals, are only constant varieties, which are perpetuated by generation. But in the vegetable kingdom there are no races, no varieties so constant as to be perpetuated by reproduction. In the species of the hen and pigeon, a great number of races have been very lately produced, all of which propagate their kinds. In other species, we daily rear and improve races by crossing the breeds."

(87.) _Breeding in-and-in._--Though there are several methods pursued by breeders for the improvement of flocks, the one most in vogue is, that of choosing individuals of the same family, and breeding _in-and-in_. It is however a plan requiring, for the safety of the flock, either very great skill in selecting the males and females, or only to be followed to a very limited extent. No subject ever called forth so much random controversy, and no evil has ever so clearly shown itself as such; yet it is only recently, that people have opened the intellectual eye to the dangers of a practice, against which the ablest pens were long and vainly blunted. The object of breeding _in-and-in_ is to strengthen good qualities and get rid of bad ones, as speedily as possible; and it is plain, that if we happen to select animals with slight imperfections, these imperfections will become hereditary, and will go on assuming a worse and worse type till the breed be destroyed. Culley, however, was of opinion, that less risk is run by breeding _in-and-in_ than is generally supposed, and instances the wild cattle in Chillingham Park, in the county of Northumberland, which, having been confined for several hundred years without intermixture, must have bred from the nearest affinities, and yet are just as they were five hundred years since. With all due deference, however, to the opinion of the late Mr Culley, I must assert, that I cannot perceive in what manner wild cattle can be made to illustrate the case in point, as it must be evident, that animals in a state of nature differ essentially from those in charge of man, in regard to the propagation of infirmities, as the former, if born with a radical defect, will, ten to one, never see the age which suits them for reproduction; while the latter, from the care bestowed upon them, will, even when very delicate, in many instances be bolstered up till they have entailed upon posterity an accumulation of their already aggravated maladies. The system of breeding _in-and-in_ proves, in fact, as destructive to flocks, as marriages of near relations to the human kind. We would not witness an every-day entailment of diseases, if people would forego their unnatural love of money, and cease their endeavours to keep it in "the family," by forming matrimonial alliances with those who are near of kin. The law of God forbids us to wed those who stand in certain degrees of propinquity; but, if we and our descendants avail ourselves of the limits of this law, and marry on its verge a certain number of times, misery must infallibly be the lot even of the tenth generation; and instead of being fathers of a mighty people, few and full of sorrow will be the days of our children; while in place of retaining in their possession our darling wealth, it will, ere long, pass into the hand of the stranger.

(88.) _Opponents of in-and-in breeding._--Different individuals at various times, and in widely separate places, have by their observations rendered the criminal absurdity of this system perfectly apparent to all, who, unbiased by party principle, are anxious for a knowledge of the truth. A few of these I shall mention. Ezra L'Hommedieu, Vice-president of the Agricultural Society of New York, collected, in the year 1800, a great many observations on the breeding of sheep, and came to the conclusion, that changing and crossing the breed of the animals is a matter of great importance, in preventing a dwindling and degeneracy of the flock. Dr Coventry, in his pamphlet on _Live-Stock_, gives it as his opinion, that "The most perfect race of animals may be debased by improper mixture, or injured by improper treatment. Indiscriminate matches in breeding, and inattentive management in rearing, are alike capable of producing a worthless progeny." Here the matter is made very plain, from comparing an evil, the progress of which is insidious, with the injurious consequences, which the most unobserving can easily trace to a parallel neglect. Mr Dick of Edinburgh, so well known for the valuable and trustworthy information he has accumulated, has been informed by eminent farmers, "that cattle bred _in-and-in_, are very subject to _clyers_ in the throat after they have attained their first year." By clyers are meant enlarged lymphatic glands, which are a sure sign of what is termed a scrofulous habit, a breaking up of the constitution, which, though produced by a variety of causes, is yet frequently the result of an "_owr sib_" connection. These are, I may say, the accidental opinions of men who had no point to make good, in which their credit was at all at stake, and who are not endeavouring to support the crude opinions of former years. For these reasons, they possess a value which ought to give them a proportional weight in an investigation like the present. Mr Bakewell succeeded in bringing his sheep to great perfection as regards form, and rapidity of fattening, by breeding in the same family for a great many years; but it was attended with considerable deterioration in the quality of the wool, and engendered a liability to disease, sufficient to deter any one from proceeding a similar length in the same track, to what is so dubiously called improvement. See what Mr Dickson says to this effect, in a recent number of the _Quarterly Journal of Agriculture_. "The evil of breeding _in-and-in_, or in other words, producing too great refinement of tone, is manifested in the first instance by a tenderness of constitution; the animals not being able to withstand the extremes of heat and cold, rain and drought. If the evil is prolonged through several generations, the forms of the animals become affected, the bone becomes very small, the neck droops, the skin of the head becomes tight and scantily covered with hair, the expression of the eye indicates extreme sensibility, the hair on the body becomes thin and short, and the skin as thin as paper; the _points_ continue good, and predisposition to fatness increases, but the whole carcass becomes much diminished in size, though retaining its plumpness, and beautiful symmetry. The evil, however, does not terminate in the production of these symptoms. Internal diseases ensue, such as disorganization of the liver, or rot, polypi in the trachea, clyers, malformation of the bones of the neck and legs, and general deformity." This position, however, will be strengthened by drawing attention to insulated portions of our race, where the effects of such a system are exhibited on a considerable scale. The Members of the Society of Friends were, at one time, supposed to be of all others the least subject to insanity; but the very reverse is the case; being, from the limited nature of their sect, driven to frequent intermarriages, and to a consequent deterioration of the most active part of the human frame--the brain. It is for the same reason, that almost every royal family contains a large proportion of idiots, or, at the best, persons of very weak intellect; and, such will continue to occur, till legislators fall on some plan of striking at the groundwork of the mischief. If the laws of God and man define to us so clearly the evils of intermarrying with relatives; and if, as all animals are constructed on one grand plan, we admit the proximity of the sheep to the human race, it follows, that what is destructive, in this respect, to the one, is destructive to the other; and that we should seek, by a nearly similar, if not wider, range of rules, to obviate many of those diseases of which, when under our protection, they are so frequently the subjects.

(89.) _Breeding from different families of the same race._--Mr Culley, though believing that no great harm can result from breeding in-and-in, yet appears to have in a manner preferred the preferable practice of breeding from different families of the same race; as he, for many years, hired his rams from Mr Bakewell, at a time when other breeders were paying a liberal price for his own valuable animals. This is of all methods deservedly the best, as the males, which are inter-changed, have always had shades of difference impressed upon them, by various soils and treatment, so that the defects of each family have a good chance to be counteracted by the perfections of the other. By this means the bad points are gradually exhausted, and their valuable properties as gradually heightened. Breeders have been much aided in the furtherance of this desirable plan, by the rearing of superior rams having become, of late years, a separate pursuit. The letting of them out to distant parts of the country has long been a branch of this speculation; diffusing some of the most valuable points of particular breeds, and leading to a spirit of competition. The practice has been reprobated, but, I presume, rather hastily; for with all its attendant evils, such as leading to deception, by what is termed the _making up_ of rams, it possesses excellencies which will, I hope, lead to its continuance.

(90.) _Crossing._-The only other method of improving a breed is by crossing two distinct races, one of which possesses the properties it is desirable to acquire, and wants the defects we wish to remove. This, however, is a measure not to be recommended, and only to be resorted to when neither of the others will do; for it is scarcely possible to obtain the desirable properties without at the same time imparting qualities sufficient to neutralize them; and with which, in fact, we would rather dispense. To cross, as Mr Cleghorn remarks, any mountain breed with Leicester rams, with a view to obtain a propensity to fatten at an early age, would be attended with an enlargement of size, which the mountain pasture could not support, and the progeny would be a mongrel race, not suited to the pastures of either of the parent breeds. The folly of such a proceeding is beautifully shown in the failure of the attempts made, some years ago, to better the fleece of the mountain sheep, in the South of Scotland. To effect this desirable end, rams were brought from the Cheviot range of hills, and the consequences were, as described by Mr William Hogg, of Stobbo, in the _Quarterly Journal of Agriculture_, just what a preliminary consideration of the existing circumstances would have proved to be unavoidable. "The independent habits of the mountain flocks were lost, and a mongrel progeny, of a clumsy figure, occupied the lowest and warmest of the pastures. As they were very improper subjects to breed from, they were often a drug in the market: _but the store-master had no other resource, but to struggle on against the opposition which the animal itself made to the change_, and, also, against the influence of bad seasons, in order to get the influence of the Cheviot breed fully established. * * * With its shaggy coat the animal lost its bold independent look, its stout shape, its unvitiated taste, and its sound constitution. A course of severe winters too occurred during the time of changing, while every property calculated to resist privation and fatigue was unconfirmed in the progeny; and, in consequence, the ravages by rot, and poverty, among the flocks that occupied soft pastures were immense." How did it happen, that the store-master had no other resource but to persevere in an unprofitable course? Was he obliged to strive against natural obstacles, which even a short experience might have taught him were, in that manner, insurmountable? Why not recur _at once_ to the old mode of management, rather than injure himself by kicking against the pricks. "Sundry store-masters were not aware," says Mr Hogg, "that their old breed would so obstinately resist the impression of the Cheviot blood, nor did they ever dream that the mongrel issue would be so easily subdued by the hardships and cold of winter: thus finding their scheme opposed, at points where they anticipated little resistance, they gave up the experiment ere it was _half completed_, and introduced mountain rams to the mongrel issue." Enough, however, has been said to prove that this plan ought not to be pursued: let me now say a few words as to the reasons which should deter us from its adoption. To take a familiar illustration:--How would one of the worshipful company of Aldermen, or a dignitary of the Church, manage to keep up an _appearance_, if suddenly transported from the luxurious plenty which surrounds him, to the meagre fare, and churlish climate, of our Highlands? Would their offspring, which ten to one would be prone to rapid growth, and, therefore, requiring at the least a large supply of porridge and milk; would they, I ask, arrive at a healthy maturity, if supported only on the oaten cake, and _whang_ of skimmed-milk cheese, of the hardy Northern? The answer is, they would not. They would, doubtless, bear the climate; but the habit of body imprinted on them, by the full living of the parents, would require a more nutritious food to bring it to the adult age, than what might be necessary for the sustenance of any child descended from the possessors of the soil. If such then is the case with the young of an animal shielded from inclemency on every hand, how can we expect the progeny of a rather heavy variety of a defenceless creature like the sheep to thrive, in defiance of every thing ungenial, on a pasture which requires for its collection, in any quantity, a degree of experience and activity, the result of time and well-trained instinct. The mongrel is not unfitted for the locality, as Mr Hogg would have it, by a weakness resulting from "the constant and continued exertions of the two bloods, the one endeavouring to overpower the other," there is no war waging in the progeny between the blood of sire and dam; the secret lies in the animal being unsuited for the pasture where it is produced. Place it in a country possessing a herbage something between that of the Highland and Cheviot hills, and it will do passing well; but do not ascribe the want of success to a natural hatred of the breeds. Again, do not fall into the error, that "the figure, wool, and other qualities, of the Cheviot ram, are most conspicuous (in this cross) in the smallest and feeblest of the progeny, while the properties of the mountain breed are more fully exhibited in the strongest and most robust lambs," a circumstance which, unfortunately, induced many of the store-farmers "to throw aside the best of the lambs, and select those to breed from, which had apparently most of the Cheviot figure;" or, in other words, do not suppose, as Mr Hogg strangely enough infers, that only the weak animals took on the Cheviot form, and only the strong ones assumed the Highland character. The correct explanation is, that such as had most Cheviot blood were sure to become puny, from being unadapted to a herbage on which those that resembled the mountain stock throve tolerably well. Strength and feebleness were, in this instance, mere secondary matters.

(91.) _Things to be attended to in Crossing._--The fact is, that, if you wish to have a _particular kind_ of sheep, you must first of all be in possession of a pasture suitable for the new comers. You must consider the influence of the individual parents on the progeny, the size of the animals, their habits and dispositions, and their peculiarities in regard to the time of their maturity, and fattening properties; and, having anticipated these apparently trifling affairs, you must see that the surface of your farm, its degree of exposure, and the quantity and quality of its productions, are calculated for the profitable maintenance of the animal in view. Far too little attention is bestowed, at the commencement of such an undertaking, on these all-swaying matters. Farmers enter upon this, the most arduous of all professions, with the settled conviction, that nothing is so simple as the engrafting of a race of animals on a particular part of a country. They have read, or heard, of others who have gained fame, and a fortune, by successful endeavours of the kind, and they think that nothing is easier than to follow their example; but they forget the thoughtful hours, and irksome duties, these men had to tolerate, before they could speak of any thing like success. No animal can be made to forego at once a long used food, an ancient locality, peculiarity of clime and season, and the instinctive habits that have been long nurtured by these, without both it and its progeny suffering from the change:--Nature cannot thus be made to bend to human intention; it will give way in the attempt.

In crossing there are several important things to be attended to. Well formed parents ought to be selected, and, if enlargement of the carcass be wanted, the issue should be better fed than its originators, which ought to be of a size rather under, than above what the pasture is capable of supporting. The size of the parents should not be much disproportioned at first, as nature abhors sudden extremes, and does every thing in the most gradual manner. It is better, when some increase has been attained, to bring the breed to the required size by one or two crossings.[15] In choosing a breed, we should adopt that which affords the greatest quantity of market produce, in return for the food consumed;[16] and a particular breed ought always to be preferred to the sheep of a district. We must not imagine, that when, by dint of crossing, we have obtained the variety wanted, that it will remain in the condition to which we have brought it, without the slightest liability to alter. Many farmers believe they have done all that is required, if they subject their stock to three or four crossings with a breed of acknowledged excellence. They think that the improved animals they have obtained will support their acquired characters, uninfluenced by extraneous agency. Now nothing can be more faulty than this mode of management, as is proved by a comparison of stock so treated, with flocks which have uninterruptedly received that undeviating attention, which can alone ensure a continuance of the properties desired. Such men forget, that the climate is operating with as great certainty on the animals as on the rocks around; and that as the herbage is determined by the nature of the adjacent rocks, so are the peculiarities of the sheep influenced by the herbage; and that if they manage to change the characters of the breed, it can, in a majority of cases, be only for a time, unless the tendencies of the surrounding elements are counteracted, by a constant recurrence to the originators of the flock. "I am sorry," says Little, in his valuable practical observations, "to say, that there are too many examples of those, who thought themselves at the head of improvement in stock, relaxing their exertions, and keeping by their own stock; and the consequence has been, that such stocks have degenerated, become delicate, tender, and diminutive in size; and from no other cause but that the same pains have not been taken to preserve the improvement, that was taken to effect it. I could mention many improvers who were of the first class formerly, but who are now only in the second." Changes, in fact, by crossing are not to be effected in a short space of time; you must look forward to several years of constant exertion, before you can hope, in this manner, to alter your stock.[17] Then, again, we must be aware of the tendency which nature, in numerous instances, displays to perpetuate diseases, dispositions, and aberrations from the normal structure. Many qualities and diseases, are known, in man, to be hereditary; of the former, I may instance peculiarities in walking, and writing; a passion for intoxicating liquors, and other habits too trivial to mention; and of the latter, gout, pulmonary consumption, and blindness from cataract, which are well known to harass a family for generations. Features, in like manner, may remain for ages of the same undeviating cast; thus the Jews of to-day are the very counterparts of the Jews of three thousand years back, and, in all likelihood, will so remain till the end of time. A predisposition to many diseases is engendered in the sheep, by too great a refinement in breeding, which tends to diminish the size of the animal, prevents them feeding to perfection, destroys their fecundity, and imparts great tenderness of constitution. Accidental deviations from the natural type may, also, be hereditary, as is seen in those races of dogs which have a supernumerary toe on the hind foot, and tarsal bones to correspond. In the human race also several generations of a particular family have been distinguished, by having six fingers and six toes, on their hands and feet. It is in like manner to an accidental malformation, that the Americans are indebted for their Otter breed of sheep. Mr Livingston, who wrote in 1811, thus describes them: "The Otter sheep were first discovered on some island, on the eastern coast, and have spread to the adjoining states. The sheep are long-bodied rather than large, and weigh about 15 lbs. a quarter. Their wool is of a medium fineness, and a medium length; but that which particularly characterizes these sheep is the length of their bodies, and the shortness of their legs, which are, also, turned out in such a manner as to appear rickety. They cannot run, or jump, and they even walk with some difficulty. They appear as if their legs had been broken and set by some awkward surgeon. They can scarcely exist in a deep country, and they cannot possibly be driven to a distant pasture or market." Dr Dwight, in his travels in New England, remarks of this curious variety, that the fore legs are remarkably short, and bent inward, "so as distinctly to resemble what are called club-feet."[18] I believe this to be the only instance where man has availed himself of a defect in the animal kingdom, and turned it to his advantage. Attention ought also to be bestowed on the order in which different parts of the animal are subjected to changes during crossing. These, according to Dr Sturm, the latest observer on this head, are first exhibited in those parts that possess a power of being reproduced, as the hair, horns, and hoofs. The fleshy parts change slowly, in proportion as the mother has much of the blood of the original race. The first changes take place in the head, and are gradually developed towards the hind quarters. Lastly, look to the condition in which your sheep are as regards fatness. If fat, they will be averse to becoming pregnant, and considerable annoyance will, in all likelihood, be experienced. A moderately low diet is most suitable for ewes, for some time before the ram is admitted, in the same way that fruit trees, when unproductive in a rich soil, are rendered fertile by placing straw and stones between their roots and the too nutritious earth. A rather poor diet, also, during pregnancy, will be found to obviate many of those risks which are sure to be incurred from repletion during this period.

[15] Dr Cline, in a communication to the Board of Agriculture, observes on this point: "Experience has proved, that crossing has only succeeded in an eminent degree, in those instances in which the females were larger, than in the usual proportion of females to males, and that it has generally failed when the males were proportionally large."

[16] It was owing to a peculiar view taken of this maxim, that so enormous sums were asked and given, for the hire of rams, at the time Mr Bakewell brought the new Leicester to perfection. That gentleman would never have obtained 1200 guineas for the hire of three rams if the speculators had not intended to procure nearly similar prices for the use of the offspring of these animals; and it may be pretty safely affirmed, that this traffic was ultimately the cause of much mischief to the breed in question, by inducing many to speculate on what was likely to prove a fashionable article, without caring much for the endurance of the really valuable points.

[17] Dr Sturm, professor of Agriculture, at Bonn, says, that a new race may be produced in the same number of years as are required for perfecting the teeth.

[18] Sheep are as liable to distortions of the skeleton as other animals. The Museum of Guy's Hospital contains a very good specimen of distorted spine taken from a sheep.

(92.) _Choice of Parents._--However faulty sheep may be, some are always to be found surpassing their fellows, and these it ought to be the aim of every breeder to discover. Without acknowledge of an animal's _points_, it is in vain that the breeder can hope for improvement. He may by accident make a lucky hit, but, unless he has studied his business from the bottom, he cannot follow up and avail himself of an advantage, which a more knowing individual would, from previous training, turn at once to a profitable account. Much may be done by letter-press description; and this I shall endeavour to achieve; but more will be accomplished by a close and attentive examination of a few well-selected animals, which it is now no difficult matter to get a view of, as, thanks to the spirited exertions of the Highland Society, valuable specimens are far from rare. In breeding and rearing rams, two divisions of these animals are recognised,--ram getters, and wedder getters,--the former, from their fineness, being kept for the procreation of animals like themselves, while the latter, from their coarseness, are set aside as fitted only for parent stock for grazier's sheep, the mere grazier liking a ram no worse for having a massy frame, and being less scrupulous about his form than the ram breeder, whose grand object is fineness, and who trusts to the ewes for giving the offspring size and substance. The principal ram-breeders are guided in the choice of their ram-lambs, more by blood or parentage, than by form, on which, at so early an age, little dependance can be placed. In the case of the Dishleys, they allow them every indulgence, from the time of weaning till that of shearing, as they push them forward with the intent of letting them the first season, while yet yearlings. It is this early arrival at maturity, which is, with truth, supposed by some to occasion their early falling off; for by a law of the animal economy, premature adult age is always succeeded by premature decay; life appearing to be dated from the time the animal enters on the fulfilment of the ends for which it was created.

According to Mr Bakewell, the shape which should be the criterion of a sheep, is that of a hogshead or firkin, truly circular, with small and as short legs as possible: upon the plain principle, that the value lies in the barrel, not in the legs; and all breeds the backs of which rise in the least ridge are bad. Their bodies should be as true barrels as can be seen, their backs round and broad, and their legs not much exeeeding six inches in length. The following is a measurement of a three-years' old ram of Mr Bakewell,

Feet. Inches.

Girth, 5 10 Height, 2 5 Breadth of Collar, 1 4 Breadth of shoulders, 1 11-1/2 Breadth across the ribs, 1 10-1/2 Breadth across the hips, 1 9-1/2

A most unusual proof of kindly feeding in the animals of this shape, is their feeling quite fat, just within their fore legs, on the rib; a point in which sheep are seldom examined, from common breeds never carrying fat there. They are particularly distinguished by the lightness of the offal, the bones being one-half smaller than in some other breeds, and the meat proportionally thicker, while the pelt is thin, and the head small--a thing of some consequence in most parts of England, where that Scottish luxury, sheep-head broth, is so cordially despised.

The best form for a cheviot ram is thus described by Mr Cully, in his excellent work on _Live-Stock_: "His head should be fine and small; his nostrils wide and expanded; his eyes prominent, and rather bold or daring; ears thin; his collar full from his breast and shoulders, but tapering gradually all the way to where the neck and head join, which should be very fine and graceful, being perfectly free from any coarse leather hanging down; the shoulders broad and full, which must at the same time join so easy to the collar forward and chine backward, as to leave not the least hollow in either place; the mutton upon his arm or fore-thigh must come quite to the knee; his legs upright, with a clean fine bone, being equally clear from superfluous skin and coarse hairy wool from the knee and hough downwards; the breast broad and well forward, which will keep his forelegs at a proper wideness; his girth or chest full and deep, and instead of a hollow behind the shoulders, that part by some called the fore-flank, should be quite full; the back and loins broad, flat, and straight, from which the ribs must rise in a fine circular arch; his belly straight; the quarters long and full, with the mutton quite down to the hough, which should neither stand in nor out; his twist deep, wide and full, which, with the broad breast, will keep his four legs open and upright; the whole body covered with a thin pelt, and that with bright soft wool. The nearer any breed comes up to the above description, the nearer they approach towards excellence of form." As an amusing contrast to this well drawn picture, I give an extract from the work of that ancient agriculturist Columella.

"Therefore, the way to judge and approve of a ram, is not only that of observing if he is clothed with a white fleece, but also if his palate and tongue are of the same colour with his wool; for when these parts of his body are black or spotted, there arises a black or speckled offspring. And this, among other things, the same poet I mentioned above, (Virgil, Georg. Lib. iii.) has excellently pointed out in such numbers as these:"

"Reject him, tho' the ram himself be white, Under whose ousy palate lies concealed A black or spotted tongue; for with black spots He'll stain the fleeces of his future race."

After some amusing remarks on the same subject, delivered in a very quaint way, he concludes his description with the mention of "twisted horns,"--"not because this last is more useful, (for a ram without horns is better,) but because horns that are twisted and bended inwards are not at all so hurtful as those that are set upright and expanded. Nevertheless, in some countries where the climate is wet and windy, we would wish for he-goats and rams even with the very largest horns; because, when they are high and extended, they defend the greatest part of the head from the storm."

It is thus that among some of his most beautiful remarks, we have generally a something occurring which upsets the gravity of the whole by its childish absurdity.

(93.) _Influence of Sex._--In early ages, the greater share of attention appears to have been bestowed on _male_ domesticated animals, on account of the more numerous offspring of which they would become the parents; and from this, as the Rev. Henry Berry, of Acton Beauchamp, Worcestershire, supposes, (in a valuable essay on the breeding of live stock, published in the _British Farmer's Magazine_,) has originated the prevalent idea, that the male has a more decided influence, than the female, on the form of the progeny. "The ideas entertained respecting the useful qualities of an animal would (in former times) be very similar, and lead to the adoption of a general standard of excellence, towards which it would be required that each male should approximate; and thus there would exist, among what may be termed fashionable sires, a corresponding form and character, different from, and superior to, those of the general stock of the country. This form and character would, in most instances, have been acquired by _perseverance in breeding from animals which possessed the important or fancied requisites_, and might, therefore, be said to be almost _confirmed_ in such individuals. Under these circumstances, striking results would doubtless follow the introduction of these sires to a common stock; results which would lead superficial observers to remark, that individual sires possessed properties as _males_, which, in fact, were only assignable to them as _improved_ animals."

In general, the qualities of the male and female parents are visible to an equal extent in the offspring, as is well exemplified among horses, in the mixture of the blood and cart breed, where the great difference in form and character is nicely blended; but, occasionally, the peculiarities of the male, or female, are visible only on some particular part of the offspring, as in the crossing of the Merino ram with the Ryeland ewe, when the former affects the fleece, and the latter the carcass.

Though there are many opinions as to the comparative influence of the sexes on the progeny, yet, as before stated, the majority of voices represent the male as the more influential. Mr Boswell, in his essay on this subject, published in the _Quarterly Journal of Agriculture_, and in the _Farmer's Magazine_, is decidedly of this opinion, "Being fully convinced of the power of the male on the offspring, I have always accounted it as a loss to put a bad male to a high bred female, and have never done so. I have, however, observed, where the country people have purchased high bred sheep at any sale of mine, and bred from them with the ordinary rams, that the breed very quickly got bad: whereas, when a Bakewell ram had been purchased, I have seen a most remarkable change on the quality of the sheep; and, in several instances, where the ewes (Highlanders) had been tolerable from which they had bred, the cross was so nearly resembling a new Leicester, as to deceive any one who was not a thorough judge." Bewick, the natural historian, supports this opinion when speaking of the original breed of wild cattle, still to be found in a few English and Scottish parks. They are uniformly pure white, with black or red ears and noses. He says, that cows, when in season, used often to be turned into the park at Chillingham Castle, in Northumberland, and that, when covered by the wild bull, _all their produce was uniformly white, with red ears and noses_. On the other hand, the female is, also, prevalently believed to have some share in the matter, and much may be adduced as evidence of its power over the form of the offspring, equally authentic with the former. Mr Ferguson, in a paper on live-stock, in the _Quarterly Journal of Agriculture_, relates the following apposite and amusing story:--

"Naturalists are, I believe, nearly agreed, that the influence of the male exceeds that of the female in communicating qualities to the offspring, and a very providential arrangement it is, in respect that good points may be thus diffused with far more rapidity than could otherwise occur. The choice of the female is by no means, however, a matter of indifference, and it is only by due attention to both that perfection can be looked for. I recollect several years ago, at a distinguished breeder's in Northumberland, meeting with a shrewd Scottish borderer, (indeed, if report be true, the original and identical Dandy Dinmont,) who, after admiring, with a considerable _spice of national pique_, a very fine short-horn bull, demanded anxiously to see the dam. The cow having been accordingly produced, and having undergone a regular survey, Dandy vociferated, with characteristic _pith_, '_I think naething o' your bull now, wi' sic a caumb_;' and, unquestionably, the mould or '_caumb_' must have its own share in producing shapes, though in his haste to detract, (as he thought,) from the merits of the bull, poor Dandy totally overlooked the additional compliment paid to the judgment of the '_Southron_.'"

It is in general supposed, that if the female be by descent small, that the length of the legs of the issue will not be influenced by the male. The weight of the carcass is a good deal affected by the male, but not so much as by the female. The impressions of one or other, especially of the male, do not cease on the birth of the fruits of a connection, for though he may have no further meeting with that female, yet are the succeeding offspring tinged with his peculiar colour, or modelled after his form. This is well illustrated by a fact which came under the notice of the Earl of Morton. His lordship bred from a male quagga and a mare of seven-eights Arabian blood, a female hybrid, displaying in form and colour her mixed origin. The mare was then given to Sir Gore Ouseley, who bred from her first a filly and afterwards a colt, by a fine black Arabian horse, but both these, in their colour and in the hair of their manes, strongly resembled the quagga. This isolated fact would be, however, but of small value if unsupported by others, which are luckily now of common occurrence, among which the following tends strongly to its corroboration:--In the _Philosophical Transactions_ for 1821, Dr Wollaston relates that D. Giles, Esq., had a sow of the black and white kind, which, after littering by a chestnut boar of the wild breed, was put, some time after the death of this, to boars of quite a different variety, yet the offspring were covered with chestnut marks, so as closely to resemble the long-departed animal.

The progeny of most domesticated animals often bear a striking resemblance to the grandmother or grandfather, and it is well known that the desired changes cannot be effected on a breed, or that the desired breed cannot be produced, till the third, fourth, or even the fifth crossing, so that the importance of having few defects in a stock will be readily admitted, seeing their debasing consequences are carried through whole generations, and that though absent in one remove, yet that they may appear in the next. Both sire and dam should be chosen as free from defects as possible, a thing often neglected in rearing domestic animals, especially horses, where the opinion is in vogue, that no matter how debilitated and worn out may be the dam, yet that if coupled with a young and perfect sire, a healthy handsome offspring will be the issue; than which idea nothing can be more absurd, as such animals, if left to nature, would seldom or never come in contact, owing to the one party never attaining a decrepit age, but perishing on its verge.

(94.) _The sex of the progeny is supposed to be the result of the relative ages of the parents_; thus, issue from a young male and an old female will in general be feminine, while that from an old male and a young female will generally be masculine; and it has been proposed to turn this, apparently a law of nature, to account, in the management of flocks, as it must often be of consequence to obtain, at will, a considerable increase of the sex most wanted. On this subject there will be found an interesting paper in the first number of the _Quarterly Journal of Agriculture_, entitled, "A method of obtaining a greater number of One Sex at the option of the Proprietor, in the Breeding of Live-Stock," and from this I extract the following:--

"In the _Annales de l'Agriculture Française_, Vols. xxxvii. and xxxviii., some very interesting experiments are recorded, which have lately been made in France, on the breeding of live-stock. M. Charles Girou de Buzareingues proposed, at a meeting of the Agricultural Society of Séverac, on the 3d of July, 1826, to divide a flock of sheep into two equal parts, so that a greater number of males or females, at the choice of the proprietor, should be produced from each of them. Two of the members of the society offered their flocks to become the subjects of his experiments, and the results have now been communicated, which are in accordance with the author's expectations.

"The first experiment was conducted in the following manner:--He recommended very young rams to be put to the flock of ewes from which the proprietor wished the greater number of females in their offspring and also, that during the season when the rams were with the ewes, they should have more abundant pasture than the other; while to the flock from which the proprietor wished to obtain male lambs chiefly, he recommended him to put strong and vigorous rams, four or five years old. The following tabular view contains the result of his experiment:--

+----------------------------------+----------------------------------+ | Flock for female lambs. | Flock for male lambs. | +---------------------+------------+----------------------+-----------+ | Age of the mothers. |Sex of the | Age of the mothers. |Sex of the | | | Lambs. | | Lambs. | |---------------------+------+-----+----------------------+------+----+ | |Males.| Fem.| |Males.|Fem.| |Two years, | 14 | 26 |Two years, | 7 | 3 | |Three years, | 16 | 29 |Three years, | 15 | 14 | |Four years, | 5 | 21 |Four years, | 33 | 14 | | | -- | -- | | -- | -- | | Total, | 35 | 76 | Total, | 55 | 31 | |Five years and older,| 18 | 8 |Five years and older, | 25 | 24 | | | -- | -- | | -- | -- | | Total, | 53 | 84 | Total, | 80 | 55 | | | | |N.B.--There were three twin-births|N.B.--There were no twin-births | |in this flock. Two rams |in this flock. Two strong | |served it; one fifteen months, |rams, one four, the other five | |the other nearly two years old. |years old, served it. | +----------------------------------+----------------------------------+

"The general law, as far as we are able to detect it, seems to be, that when animals are in good condition, plentifully supplied with food, and kept from breeding as fast as they might do, they are most likely to produce females. Or, in other words, when a race of animals is in circumstances favourable for its increase, Nature produces the greatest number of that sex which, in animals that do not pair, is most efficient for increasing the number of the race. But if they are in a bad climate, or on a stinted pasture, or if they have already given birth to a numerous offspring, then Nature, setting limits to the increase of the race, produces more males than females. Yet, perhaps, it may be premature to attempt to deduce any law from experiments which have not yet been sufficiently extended. M. Girou is disposed to ascribe much of the effect to the age of the ram, independent of the condition of the ewe."