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Show 198 SELECTION. CIIAP. XX. " you against having too great a variety of pigeons, otherwise "you will know a little of all, but nothing about one as it " ought to be known." Apparently it transcends the power of the human intellect to breed all kinds: "it is possible that " there may be a few fanciers that have a good general know" ledge of fancy pigeons; but there are many more who labour "under the delusion of supposing they know what they do not." The excellence of one sub-variety, the Almond Tumbler, lies in the plumage, carriage, head, beak, and eye; but it is too presumptuous in the beginner to try for all these points. The great judge above quoted· says, " there are some young fanciers " who are over-covetous, who go for all the above five properties " at once ; they have their reward by getting nothing." We thus see that breeding even fancy pigeons is no simple art : we may smile at the solemnity of these precepts, but he who laughs will win no prizes. What methodical selection has effected for our animals is sufficiently proved, as already remarked, by our Exhibitions. So greatly were the sheep belonging to some of the earlier breeders, such as Bakewell and Lord vV estern, changed, that many persons could not be persuaded that they had not been crossed. Our pigs, as Mr. Corringham remarks,19 during the last twenty years have undergone, through rigorous selection together with crossing, a complete metamorphosis. The first exhibition for poultry was held in the Zoological Gardens in 1845 ; and the improvement effected since that time has been great. As Mr. Baily, the great judge, remarked to me, it was formerly ordered that the comb of the Spanish cock should be upright, and in four or five years all good birds had upright combs; it was ordered that the Polish cock should have no comb or wattles, and now a bird thus furnished would be at once disqualified; beards were ordered, and out of fifty-seven pens lately (1860) exhibited at the Crystal Palace, all had beards. So it has been in many other cases. But in all cases the judges order only what is occasionally produced and what can be improved and rendered constant by selection. The steady increase of weight during the last few years in our 19 'Journal Royal Agricultural Soc.,' vol. vi. p. 22. CHAP. XX. METHODICAL SELECTION. 199 fowls, turkeys, ducks, and geese is notorious; " six-pound ducks are now common, whereas four pounds was formerly the average." As the actual time required to make a change has not often been recorded, it may be worth mentioning that it totok Mr. Wicking thirteen years to put a clean white head on an almond tumbler's body, "a triumph," says another fancier, " of which he may be justly proud." 20 1\ir. Toilet, of Betley Hall, selected cows, and especially bulls, descended from good milkers, for the sole purpose of improving his cattle for the production of cheese; he steadily tested the milk with the lactomet er, and in eight years he increased, as I was informed by him, the product in the proportion of four to three. Here is a curious case 21 of steady but slow progress, with the end not as yet fully attained: in 1784 a race of silkworms was introduced into France, in which one hundred out of the thousand failed to produce white cocoons; but now, after careful selection during sixty-five generations, the proportion of yellow cocoons has been reduced to thirty-five in the thousand. 'Vith plants selection has been followed with the same good results as with animals. But the process is simpler, for plants in the great majority of cases bear both sexes. Nevertheless, with most kinds it is necessary to take as much care to prevent crosses as with animals or unisexual plants; but with some plants, such as peas, this care does not seem to be necessary. vVith all improved plants, excepting of course those which are propagated by buds, cuttings, &c., it is almost indispensable to examine the seedlings and destroy those which depart from the proper type. This is called "roguing," and is, in fact, a form of selection, like the rejection of inferior animals. Experienced horticulturists and agriculturists incessantly urge every one to preserve the finest plants for the production of seed. Although p1ants often present much more conspicuous varia-tions than animals, yet the closest attention is generally requisite to detect each s1ight and favourable change. Mr. Masters relates 22 how "many a patient hour was devoted," whilst he was 20 'Poultry Chronicle,' vol. ii., 1855, p. 596. 21 Isicl. Geoffroy St. Hilaire, ' Hist. Nat. Gen.,' tom. iii. p. 254. 22 'Ga1'clener's Chronicle,' 1850, p. 198. |
