Breeding

BREEDING. Breeding, in agriculture, is the art of so coupling animals and of so rearing them as best to fit them for the purposes for which they are intended. The fact early became known that characteristics of the parents were transmitted to the offspring; hence the saying, true enough among wild animals, that like produces like. In natural selection among gregarious animals the strongest male takes the pick of the herd, dur ing the years of his vigor, to be again and again succeeded by other strong males. Hence, among such animals we shall often find the same sire for two or three generations. This has now come to be a pretty well established law in breeding up, to breed in twice, and once out. This rule, how ever, is only a general one, and requires close study of individuals to enable the breeder to ar rive at the definite results he seeks. This rule however, coupled with that other rule founded on common sense, to breed only from the best, and aided by a close study of the peculiarities and ex cellencies of the several animals, both in constitu tion and physical development, is what makes the difference between the successful and progressive, because intelligent breeders, as against lie who breeds at hap-hazard A critical study of the form and proportions of an animal with a view to their adaptation to the desired end, so that in animals intended for human food in connection with symmetry and physical excellence, the prime parts may be fully developed, as in animals for speed or draft, great heart and lung power, with corre sponding development of bone, muscle and sinew, is necessary to any one who seeks to excel in the art of breeding animals. Early maturity is essen tial in all animals, but especially so for those in tended as human food. In animals intended for speed, it is of secondary moment, since precocity in every case tends to early decay of the powers. If the reader will turn to the article on cattle, several cuts of improved breeds of the last century, Ayrshire, Durham and New Leicester, will be found. Taking the difference in the en• graver's art as being 100 years ago and the present time, they may be taken as fair representations of the breeds as then existiug. It will be seen that the New Leicester would be accepted to-day as a good steer. The others would now be called very bad. The model Short-horn steer here shown, and that of the Ayrshire of the present day in the ar ticle Ayrshire Cattle, will form a good study, and will show the great stride in improved cattle, true of all other farm stock, and more eloquent than pages of descriptive writing. Therefore, in breed ing any class of animals, a close and perfectly trained eye, and a correct knowledge of the ani mal organization is what makes the successful breeder. Bakewell, who lived about the middle of the last century, may be called the father of scientific breeding. During the present century he has been followed by a host of correct breeders both in England and North America, in the sev eral departments of horses, cattle, sheep, swine and poultry; and again, in the subdivisions, that arise as to the special use which the animals are intended. Thus, among horses, we now have those intended for speed in running and trotting, for style in the carriage, the heavy draft horse, and the horse for general utility. In cattle we have those eminently adapted to the production of beef, for labor and for the dairy. These again being broken up into classes, as in dairy cattle, those giving milk, rich in butter, while the milk of others are as well fitted for the production of cheesd. However much the breeder may under stand of physiology, and the excellencies of the animal make up, if he fail as a feeder he fails en tirely. A starved animal of any kind is a losing investment to its owner. Especially is this the case with he who seeks to breed up, or keep up to the standard those already excellent in their finish. The object of breeding being to improve the animals bred in such qualities as have a defin ite value in the market, as the production of ani mals capable of labor, or of producing superior meat, milk, or wool. The breeder must work strongly to obtain high development in some par ticular quality. The time has long since passed when mediocrity in several essentials, and excel• lence in none will be accepted by the buyer. Oc casionally two or more excellencies may be per petuated. Thus, the Devons are noted for the ex cellence of their beef, and their value as beasts of draft; yet their lack of early maturity, and the moderate weights of beef they attain has carried the Short-horns and Hereford's far ahead of them, since, now-a-days, beef and not labor is what is desired in the steer. So the Short-horns were once fair milkers and fair beef-makers. Some families are so to-day. Yet, those sub-families, that are eminently beef-makers, will far out-sell the others in any sale ring, and for the reason that we now have cattle eminently adapted to the production of milk. In breeding, heredity, or the power of trans mitting characteristics should be studied and the transmitting of useless or injurious abnormal char acters guarded, against. Dr Miles, in his work, Stock Breeding, has collected many instances of acquired and abnormal characters and illustrations of heredity. in the transmission of highly artificial qualities, in many and various improved breeds of animals.. As illustrating our meaning we ex cerpt the following: The tendency to lay on fat rapidly and to mature early is inherited in the best families of the Shorthorns, the Devons, the Herefords, and other meat-producing breeds, as we have shown, while the ability to secrete an abundant supply of milk is, in like manner, petuated in the Ayrshires, the Jerseys, and other dairy breeds. The certainty with which these quired qualities are transmitted constitutes one of the most valuable peculiarities of a breed. The American trotting-horse furnishes another tration of the inheritance of acquired characters. The various breeds of dogs have peculiarities that have been developed by a long course of train. ing, which are transmitted with a uniformity that is surprising. Young setters, pointers, and retrievers, that have never been in the field, will often " work " with as much steadiness and ability as those that have had a long experience in sporting. In such cases, however, it will be found that the ancestors, immediate or remote, have been well trained in their special methods of hunting. The Shen herd-dog Is remarkable for its sagacity and the persistence with which it carries out the wishes of its master; and it would be difficult, if not impos sible, to train dogs of any other breed to equal them in their special duties. The Greyhound runs by sight, and the Blood hound by scent, and their offspring all inherit the same peculiarities. The curious fact was observed by Mr. Knight, that the young of a breed of Springing Spaniels which had been trained for sev eral successive genera tions to find woodcocks, ' seemed to know as well as the old does what de gree of frost Would drive the birds to seek their food in unfrozen spring( and rills. A new instinct or peculiar characteristic has also become hered itary in a mongrel race of dogs employed by the inhabitants of the banks of the Magdalena almost exclusively in hunting the White-lipped Peccary. The address of these dogs consists in restraining their ardor and attaching themselves to no in dividual in particular, but keeping the whole in check. Now, among these dogs some are found 'which, the very first time they are taken to the woods, are acquainted with this mode of attack, whereas a dog of another breed starts forward at once, is surrounded by the peccaries, and, what ever may be his strength, is destroyed in a mo ment. A race of dogs employed for hunting deer in the plateau of Sante Fe, in Mexico, is distinguished by the peculiar mode in which they attack their game. This consists in seizing the animal by the' belly and overturning it by a sudden effort, taking advantage of the moment when the body of the deer rests only upon the forelegs, the weight of the animal thus thrown being often six times that of its antagonist. Now, the dog of pure breed inherits a disposition to this kind of chase, and never attacks a deer from before while running; and even should the deer, not perceiving him, come directly upon him, the dog steps aside, and makes his assault upon the flank. On the other hand, European dogs, though of superior strength and general sagacity, are destitute of this instinct, and, for want of similar precautions, they are often killed by the deer on the spot, the cervical vertebra being dis located by the violence of the shock. Mr. Lewes had a puppy taken from its mother at six weeks who, although never taught to " beg " (an ac complishment his mother had been taught), spontaneously took to begging for everything he wanted; when about seven or eight months old, he would beg for food, beg to be let out of the room, and one day was found opposite a rabbit hutch apparently begging the rabbits to come out and play. A dog, owned by myself several years ago, inherited the same accomplishment from his mother, who had been trained to sit in an erect position and hold a stick in imitation of a soldier with a musket. This dog was taken from his mother when but a few days old, and before it had an opportunity of learning any tricks by imitation. Without any training, when a few months old, he assumed the erect position whenever anything was wanted, and, if that did not attract attention, he would " speak " with a short bark, as his mother had been in the habit of doing. Dr. H. B. Shank, of Lansing, in forms me that a cat owned by him, had learned to open doors that were secured with a latch, and all of her descendants inherited the same peculiarity; while another family of cats, brought up with them, did not learn the trick, although they had sufficient intelligence to ask the assist ance of their more expert friends when they wanted a door opened. Girou de Buzarringues reports the frequently-quoted case of a man who had the habit, when in bed, of lying on his back and crossing the right leg over the left. One of his daughters had the same babit from birth, and co, stantly assumed that position when in the cradle. Darwin reports the interesting case of a boy who had the singular habit, when pleased, of rapidly moving his fingers parallel to each. other, and, when much excited, of raising both hands, with the fingers still moving, to the sides of his face on a level with his eyes; this boy, when almost an old man, could hardly re sist this trick when much pleased, but, from its absurdity, concealed it. He had eight children. Of these a girl, when pleased, at the age of four and a half years moved her fingers exactly in the same way, and, what is still odder, when much excited, she raised both her hands, with her fingers still moving, to the sides of her face, in exactly the same manner her father had done, and sometimes still continued to do when alone. The handwriting of members of the same family is said to frequently present a marked resem blance; and it has been asserted that English boys, when taught to write in France, naturally cling to their English manner of writing. There are families in which the special use of the left hand is hereditary. Girou mentions a family in which the father, the children, and most of the grandchildren, were left-handed. One of the latter betrayed its left-handedness from earliest infancy, nor could it be broken of the habit, though the left hand was bound and swathed. Dr. Eugene Dupuy states that he owed to his friend, Dr. Gibney, the opportunity of observing a family consisting of father and mother, five children and one grandchild. Of tilts family the father and mother were semi-ambidextrous. All the children and the grandchild are ambi dextrous to an annoying degree; all of the move ments which they perform with one hand are simultaneously performed by the other hand. The girls are obliged to use only one hand when dressing themselves, or when cutting patterns, and hold the other hand down by their side, because the two hands perform the same move ments at the same time, and would interfere with each other. Attention was called to the fact that the father of the grandchild is not semi-ambidextrous. Dr. Dupuy has made ex periments upon these persons, and has found that, if the skin of the forearm on one side be kept well dry, and a rapidly-interrupted electri cal current be used, so as only to call fdrth reflex actions, it is possible to induce synchronous movements in the fingers of both hands, and also muscular contraction in the lumbrical muscles of the fingers, which are too rapid to be carried on by the will. Wild animals, living on islands not often visited by man, do not fear him, but allow the closest approach without hesitation. When the Falkland islands were first visited by man, the large, wolf-like dog (Canis Antarcticus) fearlessly came to meet Byron's sailors, who, mistaking this ignorant curiosity for ferocity, ran into the water to avoid them. Even recently, a man, by holding a piece of meat in one hand and a knife in the other, could sometimes stick them at night. On an island in the sea of Aral, when first discovered by Butakoff, the Saigak Antelopes, which are generally very timid and watchful, did not fly, but, on the contrary, looked at the visitors with a sort of curiosity. So, again, on the shores of the Mauritius, the Manatee was not, at first, in the least afraid of man, and thus it has been in several quarters of the world with seals and the morse. Quadrupeds and also birds which have seldom been disturbed by man, dread him no more than do our English birds, the cows or horses, grazing in the fields. Dr. Kidder, in his description of the " Sheath-bill " (Chionis minor), on Kerguelen Island, says: When I sat down upon a rock and kept perfectly still for a few moments, they crowded around me like a mob of street boys around an organ-grinder,' and all seemed perfectly fearless and trustful. That the descendants of such animals, inheriting the accumulated experience of their ancestors, become wild, is shown in the instinctive dread of man exhibited by the young of the same and allied species that are frequently brought into contact with him. G. Leroy observes, that in districts where a sharp war is waged against the fox, the cubs, on first coming out of their earths, and before they can have acquired any experi ence, are more cautious, crafty and suspicious, than are the old foxes in places where no at tempt is made to trap them. Knight, who for sixty years devoted himself to systematic obser vation of this class of facts, says that during that time the habits of the English woodcock under went great changes, and that its fear ofman was considerably increased by its transmission through several generations. The same author i discovered similar changes of habit, even in bees. The marked heredity of habits has led some mod ern writers to claim that the instincts of animals are but the experiences of past generations, that are accumulated and established through inherit ance. Many of the most valuable characteristics of the various improved breeds of animals have been produced by the inheritance of habits of the system, arising from the conditions and treatment to which they have been Subjected. The remarkable records recently made by the American trotting-horse are the result of training and inheritance. The dairy breeds of cattle in herit a marked functional activity of the lacteal glands, which is buta modified habit of the sys tem. Pritchard, in his Natural History of Man, states that the peculiar ambling pace to which the horses bred on the table-lands of the Cordilleras are trained, has, by inheritance, re sulted in, a race in which the ambling pace is natural and requires no teaching. The Norwe gian ponies, descended from animals that have been in the habit of obeying the voice of their riders and not the bridle, are said to inherit the same peculiarity, so that it is difficult to break them to 'drive in the ordinary way. The habit of migration at particular seasons of the year is inherited, and I have often observed it in Mallard Ducks bred for several generations in a state of doniestication. It must be admitted, however, that acquired habits are not in all cases heredi tary, but it would be difficult, perhaps, in the present state of our knowledge of the subject, to fix a limit to their inheritance, so far, at least, as a predisposition is concerned. Acquired habits and the original traits of animals appear to be conflicting elements in their constitution, either one of which may. from its intensity, pre dominate in hereditary transmission. Pigs have been taught to point game and to perform vari ous tricks, but, in the hereditary transmission of their diameters, nature has had a stronger influence than culture possibly could have done. Carpenter, in discussing the heredity of acquired habits, says. There seems to be reason to that such hereditary transmission is limited to ac quired peculiarities which are simply modifica tions of the, natural constitution of the race, and would not extend to such as may be altogether foreign to it. From a practical point of view, however, the inheritance of acquired characters, so far as they are of any value, is, fortunately, without any apparent limit. Abnormal charac ters are frequently hereditary, but they are not so likely to be transmitted as acquired habits that are in harmony with the original peculiarities of the animal. The following examples will suf ficiently illustrate this form of inheritance : Gratio Kelleia, the Maltese, was born with six fingers upon each hand, and a like number of toes to each of his feet. He married when he was twenty-two years of age. The result of that marriage was four children; the first, Salvator, had six fingers and toes like his father; the second was George, who had five fingers and five toes, but one of them was deformed, showing a tendency to variation; the third was Andre—he had five fingers and five toes, quite perfect; the fourth was a girl, Marie —she had five fingers and five toes, but her thumbs were deformed, showing a tendency toward the sixth. These children grew up, and, when they came to adult years, they all married, and of course it happened that they all married five fingered and five-toed persons. Now let us see what were the result, Salvator had four children —they were two boys, a girl, and another boy— the first two boys and the girl were six-fingered and six-toed like their grandfather; the third boy had only fire fingers and toes. George had only four children; there were two girls with six fingers and six toes, there was one girl with six fingers and five toes on the right side, and five fingers and five toes on the left side, so that she was half-and-half. The last, a hoy, had five fingers and five toes. The third, Andre, you will recollect, was perfect ly well formed, and he had many children whose hands and feet were all regularly developed. Marie, the last, who of course married a man who had only five fingers, had four children: the first, a boy, was born with six toes, but the other three were normal. In a paper contributed to the Ed. inburgh New Philosophical Journal, for July, 1863, Dr. Struthers gives several cases of heredi tary digital variations. Esther P—, who had six fingers on one hand, bequeathed this malforma tion along some lines of her descendants, for two, three, and four generations. A— S— inherit ed an extra digit on each hand and each his father; and C— G—, who also had six fingers and six toes, had an aunt and a grand mother similarly formed. A deficiency in the — number of fingers, or in the number of the pha langes or joints of the fingers and toes, may like wise be transmitted, as shown in the following cases in Mr. Sedgwick's paper on the Influence of Sex in Hereditary Disease: A pastry-cook at Douai, named Augustin Duforet, had but two phalanges to all his fingers and toes. This defect he inherited from his grandfather, who had three children with the same malformation; the eldest of them (a son) had three sons all with the same defect; the second (a daughter) has had five chil dren, two daughters with three plialangeS, and three sons who have only two; the third who is the father of Augustin, had eleven children, five daughters normally formed, and six sons, in all of whom there is a phalanx wanting in both fingers and toes. The mother of Augustin also had two

male, still-born children,with the same deformity. Dr. Lepine reports the case of a man who had only three fingers on each hand, and four toes on each foot; his grandfather and son had likewise the same deformity. Bechet records the case of a woman (Victorie Barrio) who, instead of hands, had on each arm one finger only, the other fingers and their metacarpal bones, with the exception of imperfect rudiments of two of the latter, being entirely wanting; while on each foot there were but two toes, apparently the first and fifth, but both very defective. She was twice married: by her first marriage she had a healthy and regularly formed male child, and by her second marriage two daughters malformed like herself; and her sister and father were also deformed in a similar manner. Another case is on record of the hered itary absence of the two distal phalanges; in which the transmission of the defect for ten generations had been effected by the females only of the family. A supernumerary organ, when inherited, may occupy a different position from that observed in the parent, as in the case of a woman nipples, published by Adrien de Jussieu. The ad ditional nipple was placed in the groin, and served ordinarily for suckling, while in the mother of this woman, who was born also with three nipples, they were all placed on the anterior region of the thorax. The fifth toe of Dorking fowls, which is one of the characteristics of the breed, has been in herited, it is claimed, from a five-toed variety in troduced intoBritain by the Romans. Whether this is true or not, it is now impossible to determine, but the constancy of this peculiarity, even in the produce of other breeds crossed with the Dorking, would seem to indicate that it is a character which has been fixed by long-continued inheritance. In the Houdan fowls, when first introduced into England from France, a fifth toe was rarely seen; but at the present time it is nearly as con stant in this breed as in the Dorkings. Mr. Wright says: The abnormal structure of the Dorking• foot is very apt to run into still more abnor mal forms, which disqualify otherwise fine birds for the show-pen. Birds are not unfrequently produced which possess three back-tods, or have an extra toe high upon the leg; or in the case of the cock, with supernumerary spurs which have been known to grow in every possible direction. This tendency to an increase in the development of an abnormal character that has become hered itary has been observed in other cases, but we are as yet unable to present a satisfactory explanation of them. In the case of the Dorking, the prac tice of breeding only those birds that have the abnormal peculiarity might be expected to inten sify the tendency to its production, by making it a dominant character; but, in the following case given by Dr. Struthers, it will be safe to presume that only one parent had the abnormal character, and yet we find the same tendency to its in crease. In the first generation an additional digit appeared on one hand, in the second on both hands, in the third, three brothers had both hands, and one of the brothers a foot, affected; and in the fourth generation all four limbs were affected. In a family, says Sir H. Holland, where the father had a singular elongation of the upper eyelid, seven or eight children were born with the same deformity, two or three other children having it not. Dr. Osborne reports the case of John Murphy, aged fifty-two years, a native of County Wexford (Ireland), who had fifteen brothers and five sisters, all of whom possessed the family peculiarity of tortoise-shell colored eyes. The inheritance was derived from the mother. She had three sisters and one brother, who were all similarly affected, and who inherited the peculiarity from their mother, whose maiden name was F—. It is to this lat ter family that the peculiarity belongs, insomuch that in the part of the country where they re sided they have been commonly recognized by this distinction, and celebrated for communicat ing it to their posterity. In this case, for three generations the transmission of the defect has been restricted exclusively to the female sex. In the year 1770, as we learn from D'Azara, a horn less bull was produced in Paraguay, which has been the progenitor of a race of hornless. cattle that has since multiplied extensively in that country. The polled breeds of Great Britain undoubtedly had a similar origin. •According to Dr. Randall, a ram having ears of not more than a quarter of the usual size appeared in a flock of Saxon sheep in Germany. He was a superior animal, and got valuable stock. These were in terbred, and a little-eared sub-family created. Some of these found their way into the United States, between 1824 and 1828. One of the rams came into Onondaga county, N. Y. He was a choice animal, and his owner, David Ely, valued his small ears as a distinctive mark of his blood. He bred a flock by him, and gradually almost bred off their ears entirely. His flock en joyed great celebrity and popularity in its day, but has been long broken up, and many years have doubtless elapsed since any of the surround ing sheep owners have used a little-eared ram; yet nearly every flock that retains a drop of that blood—even coarse-mutton sheep bred away from it, probably for ten or fifteen generations, inso much that all Saxon characteristics have totally disappeared—still continues to throw out an oc casional lamb as distinctly marked with the pre cise peculiarity under consideration as Mr. Ely's original stock. The Ancon, or Otter breed of sheep, that originated in Massachusetts in 1791, were characterized by the length of their bodies and the extreme shortness of the legs, which also turned out in such a manner as to render them rickety. They can not run or jump, and even walk with difficulty. This deformed breed is said to be descended from a ram in which the malformation was congenital. It is stated, on the authority of Colonel Humphreys, that this defect became so fixed by inheritance that it was uniformly transmitted. The Niata cattle, on the northern bank of the Plata, described by Darwin, have a peculiar malformation of the skull, that undoubtedly has been developed by the' inheritance of a deformity of some of the ancestors. In this breed the forehead is very short and broad, with the nasal end of the skull, together with the whole plane of the upper molar teeth, curved upward. The lower jaw projects beyond the upper, and has a corresponding up ward curvature. A very singular abnormal peculiarity is hereditary in some families of pigs— the tail, which is perfectly formed at birth, hav ing a tendency to waste away and drop off when the animals are a few weeks old. Cases are re ported of families with a single lock of hair of a different color from the rest of the hair, which in one generation may be upon the right side, and in the next on the left. A family of my acquaint ance have several abnormal peculiarities that are transmitted with great uniformity. The little toes lap over the adjoining toes, and the nails have a longitudinal groove that gives them a bifid ter mination, so that when the nail is trimmed the part cut off is in two pieces. This same character of the nail is seen, also, on the index-fingers. In addition to these peculiarities, a cartilaginous pro jection on the back of the ear is inherited. The paternity of an illegitimate child, in one instance, was traced to this family, from its inheritance of the peculiarities above mentioned. Dr. Andet son says a gentleman of his acquaintance chanced to find a rabbit among his breed that had only one ear; he watched the progeny of that creature, and among these he found one of the opposite sex that had only one ear also; he paired these two one eared rabbits together, and has now a breed of rabbits with one ear only, which propagate as fast, and as steadily produce their like, as the two-eared rabbits from which they originally were descend ed. The same author gives the case of a bitch that was born with only three legs. She has had several litters of puppies, and among these several individuals were produced that had the same de fect with herself. He also states that a cat belong, ing to Dr Coventry, of Edinburgh, which had no blemish at its birth, lost its tail by accident when it was young. It had many litters of kittens, and in every one of these there was one or more of the litter that wanted the tail, either in whole or in part. Blumenbach affirms that a man whose little finger of the right hand had been nearly demolished and set awry had several sons, all of whom had little fingers of the right hand crooked. In his experience with Guinea-pigs, Dr. Brown-S:quard observed that, in ,those subjected to a particular operation, involving a portion of the spinal cord or sciatic •nerve, a slight pinching of the skin of the face would throw the animals into a kind of epileptic convulsion. When these epileptic Gui nea-pigs bred together, their offspring showed the same predisposition, without having been them selves subjected to any lesion whatever; while no such tendency showed itself in any of the large number of young which were bred from parents that had not been operated on. Prof. Tanner says he knew a very striking instance of the loss of milk in a flock (previously celebrated for their supply of milk) being traced entirely to the use of a very well-formed ram, bred from a ewe singu larly deficient in milk. It is stated on good au thority that animals that have been branded in the same place for several successive generations, transmit the same mark to their offspring. , From the &any cases of inherited habits and abnormal peculiarities on record, we have quoted a sufficient number to show the great variety of such char acters that are liable to be transmitted. And the many instances in the human family are given because these men seem to be recorded, while in animals only extraordinary cases are noticed. Another point the stock breeder must take into consideration in connection with heredity, or the transmission of peculiarities, is in all stock lia bility to those diseases and disabilities considered congenital, as dilatation or contraction of the blood vessels, weak lungs, soft and flabby mus cular systems, or limbs containing an unusual amount of cellular tissue inclining, in the horse, to swelled legs, weed, grease, etc., or conformation, tending to produce spavin or strains. These in breeding must be especially guarded against. As illustrating this subject in the horse, Mr. Finley Dun, a competent English veterinary authority, says: A disproportion in the width and strength of the leg below the back, to the width and strength above the back predisposes to spavin. A straight back and a short os =kis (heel bone) in clining forward,gives a tendency to curbs. Round legs and small knees to which the tendons are tightly bound, are subject to strains. And a pre disposition to navicular disease is found in horses with narrow chests, upright pasterns, and turned out toes. From what we havegiven, the careful i reader will see the necessity of informing himself in relation to the physiology of the animals in tended to be bred. For defective adjustments or weakness in the several parts of an animal, if transmitted, may take years of breeding to eradi cate. important point to be observed, is never to breed immature animals or those over worked. A male suffered to copulate unduly always gets weak animals, and a female insuffi ciently nourished, which has not arrived at 'a proper breeding age, will prove unsatisfactory. In oviparous animals, the eggs of very young females are less in number and smaller; not only this, they are less fertile, the yolk being deficient. So with all animals; very young dams always produce less young in number at a birth, or those deficient in size and vigor, than those fully de veloped. The form of heredity termed atavism, and known among breeders as throwing back, breeding back, etc., must not be overlooked. This is shown in color, the lack of some important function or appendage, and may be transmitted, after many years, and from a single coition of ancestors, resulting in peculiar horns, peculiar col ored noses, skin diseases, etc., are well established. Mr. Sedgwick, Dr. Struthers, Chadhome, Darwin, Randall, and many others, acute observers, have given so many it of breeding back, that too much attention can not be given to prevent this reversion, by breeding together animals pure, and without taint. In relation to atavism, Mr. Sedgwick says: No fixed boundaries, recogniz able by us, can be expected to limit its operation, for, like other general laws in nature, unity in principle coexists with variety in results; and it is chiefly because we are less familiar with the re sults of atavism in disease than we are with many other productive phenomena, as for the sake of illustration, with memory, that we hesitate to ac cept them, although they are not, in themselves, more exceptional or peculiar than some of those are which we not only never hesitate to accept, but with which this phenomenon in morbid de velopment seems to be closely allied. For ata vism in disease appears to he but an instance of memory in reproduction, as imitation is expressed in direct descent; and in the same way that mem ory, as it were, dies out, but in some state al ways exists, so the previous existence of some peculiarity in organization may likewise be re garded as never absolutely lost in succeeding gen erations, except by extinction of race. In relation, for instance, to a previous impregnation of a fe male by a male, in which the peculiarities of the male was shown for years, although no succeeding contact was had, is too well authenticated to be doubted. Besides the celebrated case of a seven eighths Arabian mare, covered in 1815 by, a Quagga, a zebra-like animal, the hybrid not only resembled the sire in color and other peculiarities, but the mare produced successively foals in 1817, 1818 and 1821, by a black Arabian horse, not hav ing seen the Quagga since 1816, yet the foals all have the curious and unequivocal markings of Quagga. This, of itself should cause breeders to use the greatest care in the breeding of all pure animals, that they have not contact in any way with inferior animals. To still further illustrate this matter, the following statements taken front various sources are authentic: Mr. William Good win, veterinary surgeon to Her Majesty, states that several of the mares in the royal stud, at Hampton Court, had foals in one year, which were by Actmon,but which presented exactly the marks of the horse Colonel, a white hind-fetlock, fotin stance, and a white mark or stripe on the face; and Actaeon was perfectly free from white. The mares had all bred from Colonel-the previous year. Alexander Morrison, Esq., of Bognie, had a fine Clydesdale mare which, in 1843, was served by a Spanish ass and produced a mule. She after ward had a colt by a horse, which bore a very marked likeness to a mule—seen at a distance, every one set it down at once as a mule. The ears are nine and a half inches long, the girth not quite six feet, and stands above sixteen hands high. The hoofs are so long and narrow that there is a difficulty in shoeing them, and the tail is thin and scanty. A pure Aberdeenshire heifer was served with a pure Teeswater bull, by which she had a first-cross calf. The following season the same cow was served with a pure Aberdeen shire hull; the produce was a cross-calf, which, when two years old, had very long horns, the parents being both polled. Mr. Shaw, of Leo chel-Cushme, put six pure-horned and faced sheep to a white-faced hornless Leicester ram, and others of his flock to a dun-faced Down ram. The produce were crosses between the two. In the following year they were put to a ram of they own breed, also pure. All the lambs were hornless and had brown faces. other year he again put them to a pure-bred horned and black-faced rana.• There was a smaller proportion this year impure; but two of the produce were polled. One dun-faced, with very small horns, and three were showing the partial influence of the cross even to the third year. A small flock of ewes ing to Dr. W. Wells, in the island of Grenada, were served by a ram procured for the the ewes were all white and woolly; the ram was quite different—of a chocolate color, and hairy, like a goat. The progeny were of course crosses, but bore a strong resemblance to the parent. The next season Dr. Wells fstained a ram of precisely the same breed as the ewes, but the progeny showed distinct marks of resemblance to the former ram in color and ering. Mr. Darwin cites the following case: Mr. Giles put a sow of Lord Western's white Essex breed to a wild boar of a deep chestnut color, and the pigs produced partook in appearance of both boar and sow, but in some the chestnut color of the boar strongly prevailed. After the boar had long been dead the sow was put to a boar of her own white breed—a kind which is well known to breed very true, and never to show any nut color—yet from this union the sow duced some young pigs which were plainly marked with the same -chestnut tint as in the first litter. Thus, the absolute necessity of care in the proper development of both sires and dams, and their progenitors, has been amply shown. The period of gestation in animals should also be known Youatt records the average period of station in the mare at eleven months, but that ' it may be diminished five weeks or extended six weeks. In twenty-five mares recorded by M. Gayot, the shortest period was 324 days, and the longest 367; the mean period being 343 days. M. Tessier records the period of 582 mares: The shortest period was 287 days, the longest, 419; the average being 330 days. In relation to the tion of cows, Earl Spencer has recorded the period in 764 individuals, the least period was 220 days; longest period, 313 days; mean, 285 days. He attests that he has not been able to rear a calf produced at au earlier period than 242 days. Four hundred and twenty ewes under the vation of M. Magne, at Alfort, gave as the period of gestation: 149 days for eighty, 148 days for sixty-eight, 150 days for fifty-five, 147 days for 'fifty-five, 151 days for forty-nine, 146 days for thirty, 152 days for twenty-three, 145 days for twenty-two, 144 days for fifteen, 153 days for teen, 154 days for seven, 156 days for three, 143 days for two. Extremes, 143 and 156 days; tire period in three-fifths of the flock, from 147 to 150 days. M. Morel de Vinde has recorded the period of gestation in 462 ewes, as follows: 153 i days in 118, 152 days in ninety-seven, 151 days in eighty-one, 150 days in fifty, 154 days in forty-two, 149 days in thirty-one, 155 days in eighteen, 148 days in seven, 156 days in six, 157 days in five, 147 days in four, 146 days in three. In three fifths of these ewes the duration of gestation was from 151 to 153 days. That Merino and South down sheep, when both have long been kept under exactly the same conditions, differ in the average period of gestation, as follows: Merinos 150.3 days; Southdowns, 144.2 days; Half-bred Merino and Southdown, 146.3 days; three-fourths blood of Southdowns, 145.5 days; seven-eighths blood of 'Southdowns, 144.2. In swine, the ave rage period of gestation is about sixteen weeks. The extremes being according to thirty-five well attested cases from 101 to 123 days. Earl Spen cer's table in relation to the gestation of cows, is as follows: Thus it will be seen that no person can hope to succeed in the breeding of fine stock of any kind except he carefully study form, action, characteristics, the anatomy and physiology of the animals to be bred, together with the pe culiarities desired to be perpetuated or to be avoided. Even in the breeding of cold-blooded animals, a misnomer, but which has been used by breeders, to designate especially, among horses, those whose pedigrees can not be traced, and which have come of sires and dams of the mixed breed of a country. The careful breeder, may do much to improve the quality of his stock by selecting superior and well formed animals to breed from. Yet in this day, it will be to him a losing game, since breeds of all farm animals are now so superior, that the special characteristics required may be more easily and more cheaply secured, by the purchase of improved sires and dams than to spend generations of time in secur ing improvement by breeding up from inferior animals.