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Show 118 GOOD FROM CROSSING. CHAP. XVII. uot d · yet Youatt says 3 the breed "had acquil:ed a delicacy of consti-qtu tioen i' nconsistent with common management, " and "the pr·o pag·a tw' n ot ' the species was not always certc'tin:" But th? Shorthorns offer the most striking case of close interbreeding; for mstance, the fa~ous bull Favomite (who was himself the offspring of a half-brother ancl sister from Foljambe) was matched with his own daughter~ gmndda~ghter, and great-granddaughter; so that the produce of this last mu?n, or tho great-great-granddaughter, had 15-16ths, or 03·75 per. cent. of the blood of Favomite in her veins. This cow was matched With the bull Wellington, having 62·5 per cent. of Favomite blood in his veins, and p~·odnced Clarissa; Clarissa was matched with the bull Lancaster, havmg 68·75 of the same blood, and she yielded valuable offspring.'1 Nevertheless Collings, who reared these animals, and was a strong advocate for clo~e breeding, once crossed his stock with a Galloway, and the cows from this cross realised the highest prices. Bates's herd was esteemed the most celebrated in the world. For thll·teen years he bred most closely in and in; hut during the next seventeen years, though he had the most exalted notion of the value of his own stock, he tln:ice infused fresh blood into his herd: it is said that he did this, not to improve the form of his animals, but on account of their lessened fertility. lYir. Bates's own view, as given by a celebrated breeder,5 was, that "to breed in and in from a bacl stock was ruin and devastation; yet that the practice may be safely followed within certain limits when the parents so related are descended from firstrate Q;nimals." We thus see that there has been extremely close interbreeding with Shorthorns; but Nathusius, after the most careful study of their pedigrees, says that he can find no instance of a breeder who has strictly followed this practice dming his whole life. From this study and his own experience, he concludes that close interbreeding is necessary to ennoble the stock; but that in effecting this the greatest care is necessary, on account of the tendency to infertility and weakness. It may be added, that another high authority 6 asserts that many more calves are born cripples from Shorthorns than from other and less closely interbred races of cattle. Although by carefully selecting tho best animals (as Nature effectually does by the law of battle) close interbreeding may be long carried on with cattle, yet the good effects of a cross between almost any two breeds is at once shown by the greater size and vigour of the offspring ; as Mr. Spooner writes to me, " crossing distinct breeds certainly improves cattle for the butcher." Such crossed animals are of course of no value to the breeder; but they have been raised during many years in several 3 ' Cattle,' p. 199. 4 N athusius, 'Ueber Shorthorn Rindvieh,' 1857, s. 71 : see also 'Gardener's Chronicle,' 1860, p. 270. 1\iany analogous cases are given in a p:1mphlet reccut] y published by l\'lr. 0. 1\'Iae1might aml Dr. H. 1\Iadclen, ' On the 'l'rue Principles of BrceLling; ' Melbourne, Australia, 1865. 5 1\ir. Willoughby Wood, in 'Gardener's Chronicle,' 1855, p. 411; and 18GO, p. 270. See the very clear table~ and pedigrees given in N atbusius' 'Rindvich,' s. 72-77. 6 Mr. Wright, 'Journal of Royal Agricult. Soc.,' vol. vii., 1846, p. 204. CIIAP. XVII. EVIL FROM INTERBREEDING. 119 parts of England to be slaughtered; 7 and their merit Is now so fully recognised, that at fat-cattle shows a separate class has been formed for their reception. The best fat ox at the great show at Islington in 1862 was a crossed animal. The half-wild cattle, which have been kept in British parks probably for 400 or 500 years, or even for a longer period, have bee11 advanced by Culley and others as a case of long-continued interbreeding within the limits of the same herd without any consequent injmy. With respect to the cattle at Chillingham, the late Lord Tankerville owned that they were bad breeders.8 Tho agent, Mr. Hardy, estimates (in a letter to me, dated l'lfay, 1861) that in the herd of about fifty the average number annually · slaughtered, killed by fighting, and dying, is about ten, or one in five. As tho .herd is kept up to nearly the same avera_ge number, the annual rate of 1:~wreas~ must be likewise about one in five. The bulls, I may add, engage m fmwus battles, of which battles the present Lord Tankerville has given me a graphic description, so that there will always be rigorous selection of the most vigorous males. I procmed in 1855 from Mr. D. Gardner, agent to the Duke of Hamilton, the fol!owing account of the wild cattle kept in the Duke's park in Lanarkshire, which is about 200 acres in extent. The number of cattle varies from sixty-five to eighty; and the number annually killed (I presume by all causes) is from eight to ten; so that the annualmte of increase can hardly be more than one in six. Now in South America, where the herds are half-wild, and therefore offer a nearly fair standard of comparison, according to Azara the natmal increase of the cattle on an estancia is from one-third to one-fomth of the total number, or one in between three and fom; and this, no doubt, applies exclusively to adult animals fit for consumption. Hence the half-wild British cattle which have long interbred within the limits of the same l:erd are relatively far less fertile. Although in an unenclosed country hke Paraguay there must _be some crossing between the different herds, yet even thm:e the inhabitants believe that the occasional introductim~ of .a~als from distant localities is necessary to prevent "degeneratwn m Size and diminution of fertility." 9 The decrease in size from ancient times in the Chillingham and Hamilton cattle must have been prodigious, for Professor Riitimeyer has shown that they are almost certainly tho descendants of the gigantic Bos primigenius. No doubt this decmaso in size may be largely attributed to less favomable conditions of life; yet animals roaming over large parks, and fed clming severe winters, can hardly be considered as placed under very unfavomable conditions. With /iheep there has often been long-continued interbreeding within the limits of the same flock; but whether the nearest relations have been matched so frequently as in the case of Shorthorn cattle, I do not know. The Messrs. Brown dming fifty years have never infused fr·esh blood into their excellent flock of Leicesters. Since 1810 Mr. Barford has acted on the same principle with the Foscote flock. He asserts that half a centmy i Youatt on Cattle, p. 202. ~ Report Drit.islt A::;soc., Zoolog. f:lL:et., 1S38. !J Azam, 'QH<LLlrupedcs du Pcnaguay,' tom. ii. pp. 354, 3US. |
