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 Francaise_, 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 Severac, 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."