The Lambertville press. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1858-1???, 1859-01-27

IRON THE AMERICAN AGRIcULfURlsrl
Improvement of Farm Stock.
BREEDING 1N-AND-1N.

In the Ohio Farmer, Of November q, last, I
find the following from the pen Of Hon. Cassius
NJ Clay, of Kentucky:
breeding an-and-5n; that is TO say, breed
ing to dam or sire, or near of kim has been too
fully discussed by some of the most intelligent
men in this country and England for further ar
gument. Its advantages are: lst. 1t reduces
the bone, and gives to certain extent, more
fneness and symmetry. End. It produces ten
dency to earlier maturity Sd. 1t suits an indo
lent breeder-he gets at home what others go far
to seek; be chooses once for all, while others
make yearly choice through life 4th. 1t is
urged as the natural order.
Its disadvantages are 1st It produces
idiocy, blindness want of constitution, disease,
and impotency End. 1t takes away all the ad-
vantages Of wide and wise selection of superior
animals. Sd. tits practiced noac and dlacays
by that large class of mankind who never have,
and never will, produce anything memorable
4th It falsely bases all Improvement upon
feeding and shelter ignoring selection of superior
points. 5th It is not the natural order as al
legged In a state of nature the feeble creatures
of in-and-in" breeding are driven off and killed
BY the superior types from all sources When
man attempts to keep up "in-and-in" breeding
he violates this great law of selection; and Ma
ture closes his false practice by impotency, dis
ease, and death From all which, | conclude the
rule-never breed "n-and-in +" when you can
Il oP A.
family"
To the above must dissent, and, if the writer
will permit humble New Y ork farmer to do so,
I will take an opposite side. Mr. Clay is gen.
tleman a statesman, philanthropst, farmer
-four of the modest qualifications which can be
accorded to any man. He is, withal, a capital
stock breeder, and on his magnificent fifteen
hundred or two thousand acre blue grass farm
in Central Kentucky there is a splendid collec-
ton of short-horned cattle, of sheep and of pigs
all of the best When he discourses upon any
topic hear or read him with great respect and
attention, as / do now; but thinking him exceed
ingly t,cisted on that of Gin and-in breeding"
l beg the use Of your columns, Mr.. Editor to ex-
press, most respectfully to him, my own opinions
in the matter.
What is "in-and-in" breeding, as usually un-
derstood by breeders of improved stock -
for takeit, that those who only breed CON-
mon things" either know, or care precious little
about it, so that they only obtain the procreation
of their beasts in any cheap and convenient
r bov hooy, 4bo onJ
marked improvements which have been made
during the past century by the most distinguished
stock improvers in England, whether of horses,
cattle, sheep, pigs, or poultry, and the perfec-
ton to which they have brought their animals,
has been by series of the most persistent course
of coupling sire to daughter, son to DAM brother
to sister, and any, and all other collateral rea-
tionships in which the particular qualities they
desired to transmit in the offspring of their
breeding animals predomnated Take the "Stud
Book" containing the pedgrees of the most
celebrated blood" horses on record, and you
will find those of marked celebrity on the turf
and in breeding, were frequently bred from the
closest affnities in both sire and dam, even down
to q late day. Bakewell-who is quoted by all
one of the greatest stock improvers of the last
century, in the draught-horse, long horned cat
tie, and long-wooled shepherd in-and in with
out Scruple, and to the closest connections, and
persisted in it until il each of those varieties of
stock he effected his purposes He had de-
sign, ofcourse, and knowing what he was about,
IN Il -
aswas necessary. His CATTLE to be sure, from
being ofthe wrong breed, although perfected in
that breed, were superseded by other breeds; ,
but his horses and his sheep as he left them, now
stand as models for every good breeder IN Eng
land and have so stood since his time.
Blackwell, in the outset of his career, saw the
imperfections of the breeds which he wanted to
improve, and in starting, availed himself of the
iaoorS OF the "lmprovers" before him, such as
they were, and obtained the best stock from
them that he could aud then worked upon them
for two score years, at least, until all the fine
stock-breeders Of England, who bred his kinds of
animals, had either purchased of him at high
prices or essentially followed his lead in the way
OF breeding their own His rule was breeding
in'and-n; his exception, that of finding any
tning htto breed to his own stock in the hands
OF others. he bred for symmetry of form and a
high quality Of flesh, disregarding all else in his
cattle and sheep while his ponderous cart horses
hauled mountains of coal, and butts of beer, with
elepnantlne carcasses, a development of muscle
and beauty of form which ST tho nrosant day