BREED, in domestic animals, a varietv or often merely a race distinguished by the possession of particular qualities, but not differing from the ordinary type of the species so as to constitute what naturalists usually designate a variety. The peculiarities of breeds iu animals find an exact counterpart in cultivated plants, the value of particular kinds often depending, in a great measure, upon characters scarcely capable of being defined in the 1an'uage of scientific description, but to the production and perpetuation of which the attention of the cultivator cannot be too earnestly directed. These, also, in plants, as in animals, have of themselves little permanence, and the preservation or perpetuation of them depends upon the same assiduous attention and high cultivation from which, more frequently than from any mere accidental circumstances, they have originated. Thus it happens that the most improved varieties of garden-plants usually degenerate even under ordinary horticultural treatment, and the choice pansies of the florist late their characteristic excellences if a place is simply assigned to them in a common flower border. The improvements which cultivation has effected in the productions of the fruit, flower, and kitchen garden do not, however, possess an economic importance to be compared to that of the similar improvements in the cereals and other plants cultiv ated on the most extensive scale, or in the breeds of some of the most valuable domestic animals. To the breeding of these, great attention has of late been paid—probably more since the beginning of the 19th c. than in all the previous history of the world—and with results the magnitude of which may in some measure be estimated from the state ment made on very competent authority, that within the last thirty years the weight of mutton produced has been about doubled in proportion to the number of sheep kept To the improvement of the B. of horses, attention has been paid for a much longer time than to that of oxen and sheep; and to this must, in a great measure, be ascribed the different excellences of some of the well-known breeds employed for very different pur poses. The use of the horse in war, and for purposes of pomp and luxury, appears to have been the reason of the higher degree of attention thus paid to it, even from ancient times. The Arabs have long been particuiarly careful of the B. of their horses, and diligently preserve a record of their pedigree. What is called blood in horses, however, only fits them in a higher degree for certain purposes; and with regard to this as to other animals, the judgment of the breeder must be exercised, as the perpetuation, increase, or combination of particular qualities may be the object which he has in view. Fleet ness and strength are important qualities in horses, the extremes of which never co-exist in the same animal, but of which a certain combination is for some purposes very desir able; and either of these may be displayed in a great degree without much bottom, or power of enduring continued severe exertion—a quality of very high value. The prop erties most desired in sheepand oxen are very different from those most highly esteemed.
in the horse—the fleece and the flesh being chiefly regarded in sheep, the flesh and the milk in oxen. Sometimes a perpetuation of good qualities is the great object of the breeder, and a combination of them in the highest possible degree is aimed at; some times, the production of the largest possible quantity of beef or mutton in the shortest time being almost exclusively designed, the breeder neglects considerations which would be of importance if his stock could not be improved by animals obtained from other quarters. Extraordinary differences are certainly found to exist among animals of the
same species in the readiness with which they convert food into flesh and fat, and in the age at which they are fit for the hands of the. butcher. One effect of the attention bestowed of late upon the breeding of stock, has been to supply the market, to a great extent, with the flesh of younger animals than could previously be sent to it—a change evidently tending not only to the benefit of the farmer, but to the increase of the national wealth; because that land, even without increased produce of grass, sends a greater amount of beef and mutton to market within the same term of years. Those sheep and oxen which exhibit in the highest degree the qualities just referred to, are also charac terized by shortness of legs, smallness of bones, smallness of head, and fineness of skin ; qualities the very opposite of those which would fit the animal for a wild state and an independent existence.
Some of the most important breeds of domestic animals will be mentioned under their proper heads. It remains for us only to allude here to the rules and physiological principles of breeding; but the latter, in so far as application of them has yet been found practicable, are only the best known principles of physiology (q. v.). In a great measure, however, the rules which guide the breeding of stock have been learned by experience, and are rather to be regarded as contributions to science than as deductions from it. The probable relative influence of the male and female parent upon their progeny, is a point unquestionably of the greatest importance, but concerning which widely different opin ions have been maintained; and another much controverted and important point is, the propriety of breeding in and in. Practically, the rule is always observed, by those who seek the improvement of a breed, of selecting the very finest animals possible, both male and female; although a great improvement of the existino. stock on a farm is often effected in the most advantageous manner by the mere introduction of males of better quality. The dangers of breeding in and in are very generally acknowledged, even whilst it is contended that they may very much be obviated by careful rejection of every faulty animal, and that in this way the utmost advantage may be taken of the very highest improvements; but it is likewise very generally admitted that, if equally im proved individuals can be obtained not so nearly related, it is better to seek the perpetu ation of the B. by their means. It is a rule also of much practical importance, that an improvement of B. is to be attained not by a cross between animals of very different breeds, as between a dray-horse and a race-horse, but only between those which are comparatively similar. The result of the intermixture of very dissimilar breeds is never in any respect satisfactory.
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