(64.) Early Improvers of Sheep.—There cannot be a more certain sign of the rapid advances of a people in civilization and prosperity, than increasing attention to the improvement of live-stock. It tells of a population limited in regard to soil, and making every effort to remedy the want, by an economical doubling of the return for the usual outlay: for, while a tribe wanders at large, remaining at a particular place only so long as provender holds out, and, striking the tent, departs for some far-off field, so long will their flocks be suffered to roam neglected, and flourish or decay, as chance directs.
From the time of Jacob, the possibility of determining the nature of the offspring, by impressions on the parents, has been apparent to all; and the best means of perpetuating a good quality, or removing a bad one, have continued from time to time, to occupy the attention of patriotic individuals. As much appears to have been known about sheep two thousand years ago as at present, so true is it, that nothing new is to be met with; yet, that does not rob our modern improvers of their merits, for though they deserve little as inventors, they are to be admired for that strength of mind, and determined perseverance, which enabled them to rouse their fellows from their lethargy, and compel them to become in turn, benefactors of their country, and themselves. The signs of a good ram are concisely laid down by Varro, by Virgil in his third Georgic, and by Columella; and, though the Spanish nobility were looked upon with wonder, (till eclipsed by our own extravagance,) in giving two hundred ducats, or fifty pounds for a ram; yet Strabo assures us, that in his day (under Tiberius), they gave more than three times that sum for one of the breed of the Coraxi, a Pontic nation, believed to have the finest fleece in the world.
The greatest recorded improvers of the sheep in ancient times were Lucius Columella, and his uncle Marcus Columella, Spaniards of distinction, who removed to Rome in the reign of Tiberius, and made agriculture the study and business of their lives. The former commenced his celebrated treatise on husbandry during the reigns of Tiberius, and Caligula, and appears to have finished it A.D. 55. It is a work which may be read with advantage even at present, as it abounds with much that is valuable, and is accessible to all through its English translation.[ [10]
(65.) Modern Breeders.—It is only within a very recent period, that the mode of improving live-stock by skilful breeding, has been properly attended to. The perfection of breeding formerly, was to have cows in calf once a-year, and rear calves on as little milk as possible; and, even yet, there are only a scattered few who devote to it the attention it requires. The first, in modern times, who arrived at any thing like eminence in this department, was Joseph Allom, of Clifton, who raised himself by dint of industry, from a ploughboy, and for a long time contrived to keep his methods secret, being supposed by many to have bought his ewes in Lincolnshire, at the very time he was constantly bringing them from the Melton quarter of Leicestershire. Though possessing talent, he does not appear to have had education enough to avail himself of it, and accordingly never gained the extensive popularity which fell to the lot of his successors.
As the introducers of new and important plans of management in agriculture, are always rewarded by large profits, and the gratitude of their countrymen, so none were ever more generously dealt with in either respect, than Mr Robert Bakewell, of Dishley, and Mr Ellman, of Glynde. The former, who may be said to have created a variety, considered that a tendency to acquire fat was the first quality to be looked to in an animal destined for the food of man; and on this, with him a fundamental principle, was based the whole of his proceedings. Different opinions will of course be held on the merits of the theory on which he acted but all must acknowledge, that we are indebted to his skill and experience, for the exertions which have been subsequently made to improve the qualities of live-stock, in every district of the kingdom. It was by his example, in fact, that the farmers all over the country were stimulated to exertion, and be the system bad or good, it ought to have our veneration, seeing that it was the commencement of a new and most important agricultural era.
John Ellman derives his well-earned fame, from the zealous manner in which he improved the Southdown sheep, and spread them through the empire. Till he directed his attention to the subject, every thing connected with the management of the flock was left to chance, or at least to the guidance of farm-servants, with whom, of course, it could not be a matter of interest to select, or sort, suitable animals for the continuance of the race. He speedily, however, corrected this mismanagement, and aided by the introduction of turnip-feeding, in no long time, and without any admixture of foreign blood, materially improved the breed.
About seventy years ago, improvements also commenced in Scotland. Till then, in many parishes, no farmer could keep sheep through the winter, and no place was reckoned so fatal to these animals as the undrained, and unsheltered parish of Eskdale-Muir, in Dumfriesshire. At last one William Bryden rented the farm of Aberlosk, and soon, by the original plan of draining, and building stone enclosures, made it, to use the words of his able biographer, Mr Scot of Selkirkshire, "like the land of Goshen, good for cattle which it is to this day."
(66.) Varieties among Animals.—All organized matter is subject to variety. It may be doubted whether, since the creation of the world, there have ever occurred, either at the same, or at separate periods, two individuals in every respect perfectly alike. A plant, or an animal, may resemble the rest of its species in chemical constitution, and in the number and situation of its organs, but is sure to differ from all in size, general configuration, and disposition of its parts: These shades of difference, endless though they are, may be referred to two leading causes—climate and descent; the former embracing deviations induced by temperature and resources of subsistence; the latter including changes occasioned by management, modes of breeding, and influence of sex.
(67.) Varieties induced by Temperature.—The influence of temperature extends chiefly to the colour and development of animals. In cold regions the skin of the human race is fair, and the person squat and stunted, but as we approach the equator, the hue becomes deeper and deeper, till it is jetty black, while at the same time, the stature attains nearer and nearer to the tallest proportions to which mankind seem naturally entitled. The animals of the arctic regions are, for the greater part of the year, covered with a clothing of the purest white, which is, however, in many of them, abandoned for one of deeper tints as the solar heat begins to gain the ascendant. But how very different do we not find the colours of intertropical animals. There vivid tints, and an almost metallic lustre, pervade animated beings, from the coral in its submarine abode, to the gallinaceous birds, the coxcombs of the forest. In this, as in every other department of nature, the most beautiful harmony, or, in other words, a union of what is pleasing to the eye, and suited for the comfort of the creature, every where prevails. The colour of an animal envelope is never at variance with the tints of surrounding objects. A painter, for example, would not place a flower or animal of brilliant hue amidst the monotonous aspect of an arctic landscape; neither would he picture the faintly-tinted beings of a polar latitude, as surrounded by the warm and flashy colouring characteristic of an oriental climate. As temperature, then, determines in a marked degree the colour and dimensions of every animal, such variations render the division of living beings into races and varieties, a matter of necessity. Thus all human beings belong only to one species, which may, however, be divided into five races, and these again into an infinity of varieties. The differences between a race and a variety are, that the latter is a subdivision of the former, and that in the former the modifications are more profound, the changes not being confined to the surface, but extending to the frame-work of the body; whereas, to constitute a variety, nothing more is necessary than the superficial influence of heat and light on the skin, and its appendages the hairs. The Negro and the Abyssinian are precisely similar in colour, yet they are by no means of the same race, as their different features will distinctly prove; the Abyssinian approaching as much in cast of countenance to the European, as the negro does to the higher orders of the ape. The same may be noticed among sheep, but this is sufficient for the present.
The changes induced by climate, result from the working of a power inherent in most animals and vegetables, by which they are suited within certain limits, for bearing up against removal from their ordinary localities, and assuming a different cast, as the place of their exile may differ in degree from that which they have left. This gradual adaptation to circumstances by an accommodating power is termed, in philosophical language, acclimation.