It is in general supposed, that if the female be by descent small, that the length of the legs of the issue will not be influenced by the male. The weight of the carcass is a good deal affected by the male, but not so much as by the female. The impressions of one or other, especially of the male, do not cease on the birth of the fruits of a connection, for though he may have no further meeting with that female, yet are the succeeding offspring tinged with his peculiar colour, or modelled after his form. This is well illustrated by a fact which came under the notice of the Earl of Morton. His lordship bred from a male quagga and a mare of seven-eights Arabian blood, a female hybrid, displaying in form and colour her mixed origin. The mare was then given to Sir Gore Ouseley, who bred from her first a filly and afterwards a colt, by a fine black Arabian horse, but both these, in their colour and in the hair of their manes, strongly resembled the quagga. This isolated fact would be, however, but of small value if unsupported by others, which are luckily now of common occurrence, among which the following tends strongly to its corroboration:—In the Philosophical Transactions for 1821, Dr Wollaston relates that D. Giles, Esq., had a sow of the black and white kind, which, after littering by a chestnut boar of the wild breed, was put, some time after the death of this, to boars of quite a different variety, yet the offspring were covered with chestnut marks, so as closely to resemble the long-departed animal.

The progeny of most domesticated animals often bear a striking resemblance to the grandmother or grandfather, and it is well known that the desired changes cannot be effected on a breed, or that the desired breed cannot be produced, till the third, fourth, or even the fifth crossing, so that the importance of having few defects in a stock will be readily admitted, seeing their debasing consequences are carried through whole generations, and that though absent in one remove, yet that they may appear in the next. Both sire and dam should be chosen as free from defects as possible, a thing often neglected in rearing domestic animals, especially horses, where the opinion is in vogue, that no matter how debilitated and worn out may be the dam, yet that if coupled with a young and perfect sire, a healthy handsome offspring will be the issue; than which idea nothing can be more absurd, as such animals, if left to nature, would seldom or never come in contact, owing to the one party never attaining a decrepit age, but perishing on its verge.

(94.) The sex of the progeny is supposed to be the result of the relative ages of the parents; thus, issue from a young male and an old female will in general be feminine, while that from an old male and a young female will generally be masculine; and it has been proposed to turn this, apparently a law of nature, to account, in the management of flocks, as it must often be of consequence to obtain, at will, a considerable increase of the sex most wanted. On this subject there will be found an interesting paper in the first number of the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, entitled, "A method of obtaining a greater number of One Sex at the option of the Proprietor, in the Breeding of Live-Stock," and from this I extract the following:—

"In the Annales de l'Agriculture Française, Vols. xxxvii. and xxxviii., some very interesting experiments are recorded, which have lately been made in France, on the breeding of live-stock. M. Charles Girou de Buzareingues proposed, at a meeting of the Agricultural Society of Séverac, on the 3d of July, 1826, to divide a flock of sheep into two equal parts, so that a greater number of males or females, at the choice of the proprietor, should be produced from each of them. Two of the members of the society offered their flocks to become the subjects of his experiments, and the results have now been communicated, which are in accordance with the author's expectations.

"The first experiment was conducted in the following manner:—He recommended very young rams to be put to the flock of ewes from which the proprietor wished the greater number of females in their offspring and also, that during the season when the rams were with the ewes, they should have more abundant pasture than the other; while to the flock from which the proprietor wished to obtain male lambs chiefly, he recommended him to put strong and vigorous rams, four or five years old. The following tabular view contains the result of his experiment:—

Flock for female lambs.Flock for male lambs.
Age of the mothers.Sex of the Lambs.Age of the mothers.Sex of the Lambs.
Males.Fem. Males.Fem.
Two years,1426Two years,73
Three years,1629Three years,1514
Four years, 521Four years,3314
Total,3576Total,5531
Five years and older,18 8Five years and older,2524
Total,5384Total,8055
N.B.—There were three twin-births in this flock. Two rams servedit; one fifteen months, the other nearly two years old. N.B.—There were no twin-births in this flock. Two strong rams,one four, the other five years old, served it.

"The general law, as far as we are able to detect it, seems to be, that when animals are in good condition, plentifully supplied with food, and kept from breeding as fast as they might do, they are most likely to produce females. Or, in other words, when a race of animals is in circumstances favourable for its increase, Nature produces the greatest number of that sex which, in animals that do not pair, is most efficient for increasing the number of the race. But if they are in a bad climate, or on a stinted pasture, or if they have already given birth to a numerous offspring, then Nature, setting limits to the increase of the race, produces more males than females. Yet, perhaps, it may be premature to attempt to deduce any law from experiments which have not yet been sufficiently extended. M. Girou is disposed to ascribe much of the effect to the age of the ram, independent of the condition of the ewe."

CHAPTER V.

MANAGEMENT OF SHEEP.