CHAPTER X.[ToC]
Characteristics of Various Breeds.
The inquiry is frequently made, what is the best breed of cattle, sheep, &c., for general use. In reply it may be said that no breed can by any possibility fulfill all requirements in the best possible manner; one is better for meat and early maturity, another for milk, another for wool, and so on. Because under certain circumstances it may be necessary or advisable for a man to serve as his own builder, tailor, tanner and blacksmith, it by no means follows that all which is required will be as well, or as easily done, as by a division of labor. So it is better for many reasons, and more profit can be made, by employing different breeds for different purposes, than by using one for all, and towards such profitable employment we should constantly aim. At the same time there is a large class of farmers so situated that they cannot keep distinct breeds, and yet wish to employ them for different uses, and whose requirements will best be met by a kind of cattle, which, without possessing remarkable excellence in any one direction, shall be sufficiently hardy, the oxen proving docile and efficient laborers for a while, and then turn quickly into good beef upon such food as their farms will produce, the cows giving a fair quantity and quality of milk for the needs of the family and perhaps to furnish a little butter and cheese for market.
Before proceeding to answer the inquiry more definitely, it may be well to remark further, that among the facts of experience regarding cattle, sheep and horses, nothing is better established than that no breed can be transferred from the place where it originated, and to which it was suited, to another of unlike surface, climate and fertility, and retain equal adaptation to its new situation, nor can it continue to be what it was before. It must and will vary. The influence of climate alone, aside from food and other agencies in causing variation, is so great that the utmost skill in breeding, and care in all other respects, cannot wholly control its modifying effects.
It is also pretty well established that no breed brought in from abroad can be fully as good, other things being equal, as one indigenous to the locality, or what approximates the same thing, as one, which by being reared through repeated generations on the spot has become thoroughly acclimated; so that the presumption is strongly in favor of natives.
When we look about us however, we find, if we except the Morgan horses, nothing which deserves the name of indigenous breeds or races. The cattle and sheep known as "natives" are of mixed foreign origin, and have been bred with no care in selection, but crossed in every possible way. They possess no fixed hereditary traits, and although among them are many of very respectable qualities, and which possess desirable characteristics, they cannot be relied upon as breeders, to produce progeny of like excellence. Instead of constancy, there is continual variation, and frequent "breeding back," exhibiting the undesirable traits of inferior ancestors. That a breed might be established from them, by careful selection continued during repeated generations, aided perhaps by judicious crossing with more recent importations, fully as good as any now existing, is not to be doubted. Very probably, a breed for dairy purposes might be thus created which should excel any now existing in Europe, for some of our so called native cows, carelessly as they have been bred, are not surpassed by any of foreign origin upon which great care has been expended. To accomplish this is an object worthy the ambition of those who possess the skill, enthusiasm, ample means and indomitable perseverance requisite to success. But except the single attempt of Col. Jaques, of the Ten Hills Farm, to establish the Creampot breed,[24] of which, as little has been heard since his death, it is fair to presume that it has dropped into the level of common grade cattle, no systematic and continued effort has come to our knowledge. Consequently such as may be deemed absolutely the best is a thing of the future; they do not yet exist—and there is no probability that the desideratum will soon be attained. We Yankees are an impatient people; we dislike to wait, for any thing, or to invest where five, ten, twenty or fifty years may be expected to elapse before satisfactory dividends may be safely anticipated.
Still, if all would begin to-day, to use what skill and judgment they have, or can acquire, in breeding only from the best of such as they have, coupling with reference to their peculiarities, and consigning to the butcher as fast as possible every inferior animal, and if, in addition, they would do what is equally necessary, namely, improve their general treatment as much as lies in their power, there would result an immediate, a marked and a steadily progressive improvement in stock. To the acclimation or Americanization already acquired, would be added increased symmetry of form and greater value in many other respects. This is within the power of every man, and whatever else he may be obliged to leave undone, for want of ability, none should be content to fall short of this. Those who have the command of ample means will of course desire that improvement should be as rapid as possible. They will endeavor at once to procure well bred animals, or in other words, such as already possess the desired qualities so thoroughly inwrought into their organization that they can rely with a good degree of confidence on their imparting them to their progeny.
It may be well to allude here to a distinction between breeds and races. By breeds, are understood such varieties as were originally produced by a cross or mixture, like the Leicester sheep for example, and subsequently established by selecting for breeding purposes only the best specimens and rejecting all others. In process of time deviations become less frequent and greater uniformity is secured; but there remains a tendency, greater or less in proportion to the time which elapses and the skill employed in selection, to resolve itself into its original elements, to breed back toward one or other of the kinds of which it was at first composed.