The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1872-01-20
FARM AND HOUSEHOLD.
Like begets Like, or the Likeness Of some
Ancestor.

Il II n
Like begets Like, or the Likeness of some
Ancestor.
This last part of the sentence is a very
important addition to the original formula,
and but few farmers appreciate its force, or
ever even think of it.
If some one raises a well-turned boar
and keeps him for service, the neighbors
will soon brand him as " likely lookin'
pig" and in a year or two he will have
scattered his progeny over the country for
miles around-generally without having
produced the least improvement on the ma
tive breed. The reason for this is that the
boar himself is of the native breed, and the
slight influence of this individual excel
lence, which is due more to his feeding
than to his breeding, is overborne, by that
of his long line of low-bred progenitors,
whose blood fills his veins and asserts it.
self in his progeny. If he is crossed with
extra good sows and the descendants are
well nurtured, and are bred carefully for
many generations, there will in time be
produced fixed type that will have i'm
petus enough to carry its improvement to
all it's successors. Or if the boar be of ore
of the well-establshed breeds like the Es-
sex, no matter what the sows may be.
there will be marked improvement in ali
! their progeny. A half bred, Jersey bull
calf is sometimes raised for stock purpos-
es because he is individually very prom
Using animal. Now and then he may get
calf that will show the characteristics of
the Jersey breed, but in nine cases out Of
ten his get will show more of the "nativc''
than of the Jersey. Sometimes among
dogs there will be one pup in a common
litter that will look like pure-bred "black-
andtan' terrier; but if this animal be
used as a sire, his get may all be unmiti-
gated "yaller dogs" A very handsome
and very fast horse, used for service, may
beget county full Of Junk head colts; or
stallion that is perfectly sound may beget
colts that will almost universally have
tendecy to blindness, SPAWN, or some other
glaring defect. In the human race, black.
| eyed parents doth father and mother not
| infrequently have only light-eyed children.
The causes of all these variations are
| invariably to be sought in the ancestry.
These black-eycd parents had blue-eyed
sires or danes somewhere in their family
! history: the good looking horse had, among
| his progenitors, some in whom the defects
that he perpetuated were prominent; the
black and tan dog had flood of ''yaller "
blood in his veins: in the bull the Jersey
| influence was weakened by the mixture of
common blood in his native dam; and so
we may go on through the whole chapter
of breeding from mixed races. 1t is only
where certain qualities are concentrated by
q long line Of close breeding that we may
depend with any certainty on their repro
duction. Although it is very rare that any
quality appears in the progeny that was
not characteristic Of some ancestor, more
or less remote, it is certain that these char
acteristics of ancestors, even though re-
mote, show a strong tendency to appear.
AS an instance in point, we know very
good COW that is seven-eighths Jersey and
one eighth Ayrshire which might be sold
to good judge for a pure Ayrshire, hav-
ing not the last appearance of Jersey about
her; yet her dam (one-quarter Ayrshire)
looked like pure Jersey, as do nearly all Of
her calves lone sixteenth Ayrshire). Here,
in single instance, in the third genera
ton, the characteristics of the Ayrshire
dam have reappeaaed in full force after she
was dead and gone. Thoroughbred hors-
es English race horses always look like
thorough-hreds, never like Canucks or cart
horses. The full blooded children Of Jews
the only thorough bred white race we
usually see-always bear the Jewish face
as unmistakable as the children of negroes
carry their pecularities. In those instan-
ces, both man and horse have bred SO long
in the pure line, that variations from the
pure type are too remote to have influence.
The deduction from the foregoing state
ments is, that we should breed only from
thoroughbred sires. Personal or const-
tutional defects being absent, the great
thing to be regarded is pedigree. If you
have your choice between two pedigreed
animals always take the handsomest and
the best, but if you must choose between 4
somewhat inferior animal with pedigree,
and perfect animal with an inferior pedi-
gree, always regard the pedigree as far out
weighing individual excellence. Do not
be misled by the superior beauty of the
underlined beast. What you want of him
is TO transmit the qualities of his ancestors.
His beauty,or want of beauty, he carries in
his own person. The excellence or the
defects that he will transmit to his de-
scendants are an inheritance from his prog
enitors, and your business is much more
with them than with himself. In our opn-
ion no farmer can afford to breed from any
but thoroughbred sire if thorough
bred is within his reach, for the reason
that he cannot afford to take the risk of
this temperance OF ancestral defects,
which are always liable to crop out.
In some instances, as with swine, we
believe that half-bred animals are often
quite as profitable to the feeder as pure
breeds; but it will not do to attempt to
raise half-bred pigs from half-bred boar
and . half bred SOW. The result would be
too uncertain. The boar should be ped
igreed animal; by which we mean that we
should have satisfactory evidence that, for
"a many generations hack as II is usual IN
trace thorough breds of that race, there
should be no admixture of other blood. In
other words, in all breeding we should
look back as far as possible to see what
qualities we are likely to perpetuate in our
breeding. There are certain indications
by which we may judge latter fashion, of
the tendency Of a bull to beget good milk
| ing cows. But if we can know that his
| dam and hnfi, his rranddams and all fonr