The Principles of Breeding | Page 2

and each must answer it for himself. In England the problem to be
solved by the breeder of neat cattle and sheep is how "to produce an
animal or a living machine which with a certain quantity and quality of
food, and under certain given circumstances, shall yield in the shortest
time the largest quantity and best quality of beef, mutton or milk, with
the largest profit to the producer and at least cost to the consumer." But
this is not precisely the problem for American farmers to solve, because
our circumstances are different. Few, if any, here grow oxen for beef
alone, but for labor and beef, so that earliest possible maturity may be
omitted and a year or more of labor profitably intervene before
conversion to beef. Many cultivators of sheep, too, are so situated as to
prefer fine wool, which is incompatible with the largest quantity and
best quality of meat. Others differently situated in regard to a meat
market would do well to follow the English practice and aim at the
most profitable production of mutton. A great many farmers, not only
of those in the vicinity of large towns, but of those at some distance,
might, beyond doubt, cultivate dairy qualities in cows, to great
advantage, and this too, even, if necessary, at the sacrifice, to
considerable extent, of beef making qualities. As a general thing dairy
qualities have been sadly neglected in years past.
Whatever may be the object in view, it should be clearly apprehended,
and striven for with persistent and well directed efforts. To buy or
breed common animals of mixed qualities and use them for any and for
all purposes is too much like a manufacturer of cloth procuring some
carding, spinning and weaving machinery, adapted to no particular
purpose but which can somehow be used for any, and attempting to
make fabrics of cotton, of wool, and of linen with it. I do not say that
cloth would not be produced, but he would assuredly be slow in getting
rich by it.

The stock grower needs not only to have a clear and definite aim in
view, but also to understand the means by which it may best be
accomplished. Among these means a knowledge of the principles of
breeding holds a prominent place, and this is not of very easy
acquisition by the mass of farmers. The experience of any one man
would go but a little way towards acquiring it, and there has not been
much published on the subject in any form within the reach of most. I
have been able to find nothing like an extended systematic treatise on
the subject, either among our own or the foreign agricultural literature
which has come within my notice. Indeed, from the scantiness of what
appears to have been written, coupled with the fact that much
knowledge must exist somewhere, one is tempted to believe that not all
which might have done so, has yet found its way to printers' ink. That a
great deal has been acquired, we know, as we know a tree--by its fruits.
That immense achievements have been accomplished is beyond doubt.
The improvement of the domestic animals of a country so as greatly to
enhance their individual and aggregate value, and to render the rearing
of them more profitable to all concerned, is surely one of the
achievements of advanced civilization and enlightenment, and is as
much a triumph of science and skill as the construction of a railroad, a
steamship, an electric telegraph, or any work of architecture. If any
doubt this, let them ponder the history of those breeds of animals which
have made England the stock nursery of the world, the perfection of
which enables her to export thousands of animals at prices almost
fabulously beyond their value for any purpose but to propagate their
kind; let them note the patient industry, the genius and application
which have been put forth to bring them to the condition they have
attained, and their doubts must cease.
Robert Bakewell of Dishley, was one of the first of these improvers.
Let us stop for a moment's glance at him. Born in 1725, on the farm
where his father and grandfather had been tenants, he began at the age
of thirty to carry out the plans for the improvement of domestic animals
upon which he had resolved as the result of long and patient study and
reflection. He was a man of genius, energy and perseverance. With
sagacity to conceive and fortitude to perfect his designs, he laid his

plans and struggled against many disappointments, amid the ridicule
and predictions of failure freely bestowed by his neighbors,--often
against serious pecuniary embarrassments; and at last was crowned by
a wonderful degree of success. When he commenced letting his