The Principles of Breeding Part 3

[5] In his Origin of Species.

[6] It was long ago stated by Haller, that when a mare had a foal by an a.s.s and afterwards another by a horse, the second offspring begotten by the horse nevertheless approached in character to a mule.

[7] See Abd el Kader's letter.

[8] Journal of Medical Science, 1850.

[9] Kirke's Physiology.

[10] Philosophical Transactions for 1821.

[11] The late M.A. c.u.ming, V.S., of New Brunswick, once remarked to the writer, that it might be due to the fact that the nerves of the uterus, which before the first impregnation were in a rudimentary state, were developed under a specific influence from the s.e.m.e.n of the first male, and that they might retain so much of a peculiar style of development as to impress upon future progeny by other males the likeness of the first.

[12] Edinburgh Journal Medical Science, 1849.

[13] A very striking fact may be related in this connection, which while it may or may not have a practical bearing on the breeding of domestic animals, shows forcibly how mysterious are some of the laws of reproduction. It is stated by the celebrated traveler, Count de Strzelecki, in his Physical Description of New South Wales and Van Dieman's Land. "Whenever," he says, "a fruitful intercourse has taken place between an aboriginal woman and an European male, that aboriginal woman is forever after incapable of being impregnated by a male of her own nation, although she may again be fertile with a European." The Count, whose means and powers of observation are of the highest possible order, affirms that "hundreds of instances of this extraordinary fact are on record in the writer's memoranda all recurring invariably under the same circ.u.mstances, all tending to prove that the sterility of the female, which is relative only to one and not to the other male is not accidental, but follows laws as cogent though as mysterious as the rest of those connected with generation." The Count's statement is endorsed by Dr. Maunsell of Dublin, Dr. Carmichael of Edinburgh, and the late Prof. Goodsir, who say they have learned from independent sources that as regards Australia, Strzelecki's statement is unquestionable and must be regarded as the expression of a law of nature. The law does not extend to the negro race, the fertility of the negro female not being apparently impaired by previous fruitful intercourse with a European male.

In reply to an inquiry made whether he had ever noticed exceptional cases, the Count says: "It has not come under my cognizance to see or hear of a native female which having a child with a European had afterwards any offspring with a male of her own race."

The Count's statement is suggestive as to the disappearance of the aborigines of some countries. This has often been the subject of severe comment and is generally ascribed to the rum and diseases introduced by the white man. It would now appear that other influences have also been operative.

[14] Carpenter's Physiology, new edition, page 783.

CHAPTER IV.

ATAVISM, OR ANCESTRAL INFLUENCE.

It may not be easy to say whether this phenomenon is more connected with the law of similarity, or with that of variation. Youatt, in his work on cattle published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, inclines to the former. He speaks of it as showing the universality of the application of the axiom that "like produces like"--that when this "may not seem to hold good, it is often because the lost resemblance to generations gone by is strongly revived." The phenomenon, or law, as it is sometimes called, of atavism,[15] or ancestral influence, is one of considerable practical importance, and well deserves careful attention by the breeder of farm stock.

Every one is aware that it is nothing unusual for a child to resemble its grandfather or grandmother or some ancestor still farther back, more than it does either its own father or mother. The fact is too familiar to require the citing of examples. We find the same occurrence among our domestic animals, and oftener in proportion as the breeds are crossed or mixed up. Among our common stock of neat cattle, (_natives_, as they are often called,) originating as they have done from animals brought from England, Scotland, Denmark, France and Spain, each possessing different characteristics of form, color and use; and bred, as our common stock has usually been, indiscriminately together, with no special point in view, no attempt to obtain any particular type or form, or to secure adaptation for any particular purpose, we have very frequent opportunities of witnessing the results of the operation of this law of hereditary transmission.

So common indeed is its occurrence, that the remark is often made, that however good a cow may be, there is no telling beforehand what sort of a calf she may have.

The fact is sufficiently obvious that certain peculiarities often lie dormant for a generation or two and then reappear in subsequent progeny. Stockmen often speak of it as "breeding back," or "crying back." The cause of this phenomenon we may not fully understand. A late writer says, "it is to be explained on the supposition that the qualities were transmitted by the grandfather to the father in whom they were _masked_ by the presence of some antagonistic or controlling influence, and were thence transmitted to the son in whom the antagonistic influence being withdrawn they manifest themselves." A French writer on Physiology says, if there is not inheritance of paternal characteristics, there is at least an _apt.i.tude_ to inherit them, a disposition to reproduce them; and there is always a transmission of this apt.i.tude to some new descendants, among whom these traits will manifest themselves sooner or later.[16] Mr. Singer, let us say, has a remarkable apt.i.tude for music; but the influence of Mrs. Singer is such that their children inheriting her imperfect ear, manifest no musical talent whatever. These children however have inherited the disposition of the father in spite of its non-manifestation; and if, when they transmit what in them is latent, the influence of their wives is favorable, the grand-children may turn out musically gifted.

The lesson taught by the law of atavism is very plain. It shows the importance of seeking "thorough-bred" or "well-bred" animals; and by these terms are simply meant such as are descended from a line of ancestors in which for many generations the desirable forms, qualities and characteristics have been _uniformly shown_. In such a case, even if ancestral influence does come in play, no material difference appears in the offspring, the ancestors being all essentially alike.

From this stand point we best perceive in what consists the money value of a good "pedigree." It is in the evidence which it brings that the animal is descended from a line all the individuals of which were alike, and excellent of their kind, and so is almost sure to transmit like excellencies to its progeny in turn;--not that every animal with a long pedigree full of high-sounding names is necessarily of great value as a breeder, for in every race or breed, as we have seen while speaking of the law of variation, there will be here and there some which are less perfect and symmetrical of their kind than others; and if such be bred from, they may likely enough transmit undesirable points; and if they be mated with others possessing similar failings, they are almost sure to deteriorate very considerably.

Pedigree is valuable in proportion as it shows an animal to be descended, not only from such as are purely of its own race or breed, but also from such individuals in that breed as were specially noted for the excellencies for which that particular breed is esteemed.

Weeds are none the less worthless because they appear among a crop consisting chiefly of valuable plants, nor should deformed or degenerate plants, although they be true to their kind, ever be employed to produce seed. If we would have good cabbages or turnips, it is needful to select the most perfect and the soundest to grow seed from, and to continue such selection year after year. Precisely the same rule holds with regard to animals.

The pertinacity with which hereditary traits cling to the organization in a latent, masked or undeveloped condition for long after they might be supposed to be wholly "bred out" is sometimes very remarkable. What is known among breeders of Short-horns as the "Galloway alloy,"

although originating by the employment for only once of a single animal of a different breed, is said to be traceable even now, after many years, in the occasional development of a "s.m.u.tty nose" in descendants of that family.

Many years ago there were in the Kennebec valley a few polled or hornless cattle. They were not particularly cherished, and gradually diminished in numbers. Mr. Payne Wingate shot the last animal of this breed, (a bull calf or a yearling,) mistaking it in the dark for a bear. During thirty-five years subsequently all the cattle upon his farm had horns, but at the end of that time one of his cows produced a calf which grew up without horns, and Mr. Wingate said it was, in all respects, the exact image of the first bull of the breed brought there.

Probably the most familiar exemplification of clearly marked ancestral influence among us, is to be found in the ill-begotten, round-breeched calves occasionally, and not very unfrequently, dropped by cows of the common mixed kind, and which, if killed early, make very blue veal, and if allowed to grow up, become exceedingly profitless and unsatisfactory beasts; the heifers being often sterile, the cows poor milkers, the oxen dull, mulish beasts, yielding flesh of very dark color, ill flavor and dest.i.tute of fat. They are known by various names in different localities, in Maine as the "Whitten" and "Peter Waldo" breed, in Ma.s.sachusetts as "Yorkshire" and "Westminster," in New York as the "Pumpkin b.u.t.tocks," in England as "_Lyery_" or "_Lyery_ Dutch," &c., &c.

Those in northern New England are believed to be descended chiefly from a bull brought from Watervliet, near Albany, New York, more than forty years ago, (in 1818,) by the Shakers at Alfred, in York county, Maine, and afterwards transferred to their brethren in c.u.mberland county. No one who has proved the worthlessness of these cattle can readily believe that any bull of this sort would have been knowingly kept for service since the first one brought into the State, and yet it is by no means a rare occurrence to find calves dropped at the present time bearing unmistakable evidence of that origin.

It seems likely that this disagreeable peculiarity was first brought into the country by means of some of the early importations of Dutch or of the old Durham breed.

Culley, in speaking of the Short-horns, inclines to the opinion that they were originally from Holland, and himself recollected men who in the early part of their lives imported Dutch cattle into the county of Durham, and of one Mr. Dobinson he says, he was noted for having the best breed of Short-horns of any and sold at high prices. "But afterwards some other persons of less knowledge, going over, brought home some bulls that introduced the disagreeable kind of cattle called _lyery_ or _double lyered_, that is, black-fleshed. These will feed to great weight, but though fed ever so long will not have a pound of fat about them, neither within or without, and the flesh (for it does not deserve to be called beef) is as black and coa.r.s.e grained as horse flesh. No man will buy one of this kind if he knows any thing of the matter, and if he should be once taken in he will remember it well for the future; people conversant with cattle very readily find them out by their round form, particularly their b.u.t.tocks, which are turned like a black coach horse, and the smallness of the tail; but they are best known to the graziers and dealers in cattle by the _feel_ or _touch_ of the fingers; indeed it is this nice touch or feel of the hand that in a great measure const.i.tutes the judge of cattle."

FOOTNOTES:

[15] From the Latin _Atavus_--meaning any ancestor indefinitely, as a grandmother's great grandfather.

[16] "S'il n'y a pas heritage des caracteres paternels il y a donc au moins _apt.i.tude_ a en heriter, disposition a les reproduire, et toujours cette transmission de cette apt.i.tude a des noveau descendants, chez lesquels ces memes caracteres se manifesteront tot ou tard."--_Longet's_ "_Traite de Physiologie_," ii: 133.

CHAPTER V.

RELATIVE INFLUENCE OF THE PARENTS.

The relative influence of the male and female parents upon the characteristics of progeny has long been a fertile subject of discussion among breeders. It is found in experience that progeny sometimes resembles one parent more than the other,--sometimes there is an apparent blending of the characteristics of both,--sometimes a noticeable dissimilarity to either, though always more or less resemblance somewhere, and sometimes, the impress of one may be seen upon a portion of the organization of the offspring and that of the other parent upon another portion; yet we are not authorized from such discrepancies to conclude that it is a matter of chance, for all of nature's operations are conducted by fixed laws, whether we be able fully to discover them or not. The same causes always produce the same results. In this case, not less than in others there are, beyond all doubt, fixed laws, and the varying results which we see are easily and sufficiently accounted for by the existence of conditions or modifying influences not fully patent to our observation.

In the year 1825, the Highland Society of Scotland, proposed as the subject of prize essays, the solution of the question, "whether the breed of live stock connected with agriculture be susceptible of the greatest improvement from the qualities conspicuous in the male or from those conspicuous in the female parent?" Four essays received premiums. Mr. Boswell, one of the prize writers, maintained that it is not only the male parent which is capable of most speedily improving the breed of live stock, "but that the male is the parent which we can alone look to for improvement."

His paper is of considerable length and ably written--abounding in argument and ill.u.s.trations not easily condensed so as to be given here, and it is but justice to add that he also holds that "before the breed of a country can be improved, much more must be looked to than the answer to the question put by the Highland Society--such as crossing, selection of both parents, attention to pedigree, and to the food and care of offspring."

And of crossing, he says, "when I praise the advantage of crossing, I would have it clearly understood that it is only to bring together animals _not nearly related_ but always of _the same breed_; never attempting to breed from a speed horse and a draught mare or vice versa." Crossing of breeds "may do well enough for once, but will end in vexation, if attempted to be prolonged into a line."

Mr. Christian, in his essay, supports the view, that the offspring bears the greatest resemblance to that parent whether male or female, which has exerted the greatest sway of generative influence in the formation of the foetus, "that any hypothesis which would a.s.sign a superiority, or set limits to the influence of either s.e.x in the product of generation is unsound and inadmissible," and he thus concludes--"as therefore it is unsafe to trust to the qualities of any individual animal, male or female, in improving stock, the best bred and most perfect animals of both s.e.xes should be selected and employed in propagation; there being, in short, no other certain or equally efficacious means of establishing or preserving an eligible breed."

Mr. Dallas, in his essay, starts with the idea that the seminal fluid of the male invests the ovum, the formation of which he ascribes to the female; and he supports the opinion, that where external appearance is concerned, the influence of the male will be discovered; but in what relates to internal qualities, the offspring will take most from the female. He concludes thus:--"When color, quality of fleece, or outward form is wanted, the male may be most depended on for these; but when milk is the object, when disposition, hardiness, and freedom from diseases of the viscera, and, in short, all internal qualities that may be desired, then the female may be most relied on."

One of the most valuable of these papers was written by the Rev. Henry Berry of Worcestershire, in which, after stating that the question proposed is one full of difficulty and that the discovery of an independent quality such as that alluded to, in either s.e.x, would be attended with beneficial results, he proceeds to show, that it is not to s.e.x, but to high blood, or in other words, to animals long and successfully selected, and bred with a view to particular qualifications, whether in the male or female parent, that the quality is to be ascribed, which the Highland Society has been desirous to a.s.sign correctly.

The origin of the prevalent opinion which a.s.signs this power princ.i.p.ally to the male, he explains by giving the probable history of the first efforts in improving stock. The greatest attention would naturally be paid to the male, both on account of his more extended services, and the more numerous produce of which he could become the parent; in consequence of which sires would be well-bred before dams.

"The ideas entertained respecting the useful qualities of an animal would be very similar and lead to the adoption of a general standard of excellence, towards which it would be required that each male should approximate; and thus there would exist among what may be termed fashionable sires, a corresponding form and character different from, and superior to, those of the general stock of the country. This form and character would in most instances have been acquired by _perseverance in breeding from animals which possessed the important or fancied requisites_, and might therefore be said to be almost _confirmed_ in such individuals. Under these circ.u.mstances, striking results would doubtless follow the introduction of these sires to a common stock; results which would lead superficial observers to remark, that individual sires possessed properties as _males_, which in fact were only a.s.signable to them as _improved_ animals."

The opinion entertained by some, that the female possesses the power generally ascribed to the male, he explains also by a reference to the history of breeding: "It is well known to persons conversant with the subject of improved breeding, that of late years numerous sales have taken place of the entire stocks of celebrated breeders of sires, and thus, the females, valuable for such a purpose, have pa.s.sed into a great number of hands. Such persons have sometimes introduced a cow so acquired to a bull inferior in point of descent and general good qualities, and the offspring is known, in many instances, to have proved superior to the sire by virtue of the dam's excellence, and to have caused a suspicion in the minds of persons not habituated to compare causes with effects, that certain females also possess the property in question."

The writer gives various instances ill.u.s.trative of his views, in some of which the male only, and in others the female only, was the high-bred animal, in all of which the progeny bore a remarkable resemblance to the well-bred parent. He says, that where both parents are equally well bred, and of nearly equal individual excellence, it is not probable that their progeny will give general proof of a preponderating power in either parent to impress peculiar characteristics upon the offspring;--yet in view of all the information we have upon the subject, he recommends a resort to the best males as the most simple and efficacious mode of improving such stocks as require improvement, and the only proceeding by which stock already good can be preserved in excellence.

Mon. Giron[17] expresses the opinion that the relative age and vigor of the parents exercises very considerable influence, and states as the results of his observation, that the offspring of an old male and a young female resembles the father less than the mother in proportion as the mother is more vigorous and the father more decrepit, and that the reverse occurs with the offspring of an old female and a young male.

Among the more recent theories or hypotheses which have been started regarding the relative influence of the male and female parents, those of Mr. Orton, presented in a paper read before the Farmers' Club at Newcastle upon Tyne, on the Physiology of Breeding, and of Mr. Walker in his work on Intermarriage, as they both arrived to a certain extent, at substantially the same conclusions by independent observations of their own and as these seem to agree most nearly with the majority of observed facts, are deemed worthy of favorable mention.

The conclusions of Mr. Orton, briefly stated,[18] are, that in the progeny there is no casual or haphazard blending of the parts or qualities of the two parents, but rather that organization is transmitted by halves, or that each parent contributes to the formation of certain structures, and to the development of certain qualities. Advancing a step further, he maintains, that the male parent chiefly determines the external characters, the general appearance, in fact, the outward structure and locomotive powers of the offspring, as the framework, or bones and muscles, more particularly those of the limbs, the organs of sense and skin; while the female parent chiefly determines the internal structures and the general quality, mainly furnishing the vital organs, i.e., the heart, lungs, glands and digestive organs, and giving tone and character to the vital functions of secretion, nutrition and growth. "Not however that the male is without influence on the internal organs and vital functions, or the female without influence on the external organs and locomotive powers of their offspring. The law holds only within certain restrictions, and these form as it were a secondary law, one of limitations, and scarcely less important to be understood than the fundamental law itself."