BREEDERS' FACTS.

Waikato Times, Volume I, Issue 61, 19 September 1872, Page 2

BREEDERS' FACTS.

(From the SrnXKr Wk have note of some sales of Snort horn stock b,> Mr Thornton in England. He sold in June last 33 cows and 7 bulls, the property of J. Blimdell, oi Wood-side, for £35 5s each. Mr Woodward'* another celebrated herd made iJ3S each. The Agricultural Gazette says Among recant exportationa of pedigree stock from our shores are the following, thegreater number of which have found their way to America or Australia: Two cows and throe heifers, bred by Lord Southampton, Colonel and Me s: - s Woodward ; Goode and Sheldon were shipped from Liverpool by the Nyanza, Januarv 16, for Mr Augustus \\ hitman, Fitch burg, Massachusetts, U.S.A. Seven bulls, bred by Messrs Aylmer and Willis, were shipped from Lv.iuL.a by the Ranee. March 12, to Messrs Archer and Co., Gracemere, Roekhampton, Queensland. One cow, two heifers, and three bulls, bred by the Hon. H. N. Hill and Messrs. Outhwaile, Butler, Wills, and Slye, were shipped by the Asealon from Grays, February 18, with a Hereford Hull, Prince of the Lillies. trom the herd of the Earl of Southesk, for Mr Chiutval, Clarence River, N.S.W. One heifer, bred by Mr Metcalf, of Rareustonedale, Westmoreland, was shipped from Liverpool in March, for Messrs. G rice and Co., Melbourne, Victoria. One bull and two heifers, bred by Mr Game, of Churchill Heath, were shipped bv the Birtbgrove from Birkenhead, March 21, for Mr Elliott, Melbourne, Victoria. A cow and bull bred respectively by Rev J. Storer and Mr Wort ley, were shipped from Grays in January, by the Cambrian, for Mr Lawer3, Jamaica. Mr Carr's remarks on Shorthorns are always worthy •>f attent ion. He says : — " It is often diflicult to convince even those fanners who have used and experienced the benefits resulting from the use of a high-bred sire, of the expediency of continuing in the same course. Some wretched cross-bred c»w put to the ' pedigree bull' probably produces a bull calf with all the characteristics of its sire—all the more probably so. perhaps, from her being of no distinctive character herself. This the farmer rears on something better than blue milk, in the hope of getting a prize or two with him from local societies, nine out of ten of which absurdly ignores the first desideratum of the sire—pure descent, the bull of one cross being allowed to compete with the possessor of half a dozen crosses. The mongrel gets ihe white ribbon, and immediately becomes, in his owner's estimation, endowed with every necessary qualification for a sire. The farmer thenceforth uses him to his own cattle, and perhaps those of hall the neighbourhood. The result of this ret rograde step is soon apparent in the stock. Interesting tracts of the maternal ancestry of the parvenu bull reappears in liis progeny. # # # [But though tin* iftriuev sees that he is rapidly losing all the ground he had gained, and that his stock has ceased to be sought alter, he rarely admits the cause." Speaking of close breeding, Mr Carr tells us that, —" Few peopV have any idea of t le an a/.ing exten' to which the in-and-in breeding was carried on by the brothers Colling ; and so great was the complication it involved, that few of those who know the outline of the circumstances can adequately realise all their intricacies. It is almost impossible to describe even proximately in some of its stronger features the system they pursued, but the attempt ought to be made. The Messrs Colling's system of in-and-in breeding is not only one of the most remarkable and authentic cases in the history of the reproduction of animals with which we are acquainted, but the earlier Booth bulls were amongst those most strongly subjected to its influence. " Mr C. Colling's bull Bolinbroke, and his cow Phcenix, were brother and sister on the sire's side, and nearly so on the dam's. They were of the same family, and the only difference in descent was, that Bolinbroke was a grandson of Dalton Duke, while Phoenix was not. But this apparent difference, slight as it is, was not all real, for Dalton Duke also contained some portion of their common blood. Arithmetically stated, the blood of the two being taken and divided into thirty-two parts, twenty-nine of those parts were of blood common to both, rather differently proportioned between them. Phoenix had sixteen of those parts, Bolinbroke thirteen ; the latter having also three fresh parts derived from Dalton Duke, which made up the thirty-two. Being thus very nearly own brother and sister, they were the joint parents of the bull Favourite. That bull was next put to liis own mother Phcenix, so nearly related to him on his sire's side also ; and the produce was young Phoenix. To this heifer Favourite was once more put, she being it once his daughter and more than own sister too. For their two sires, Bolinbroke and Favourite, were not only as nearly as possible consanguineous with each other, but also with the cow Phoenix, to which they were both put. The result was —Comet. Nor was this all. The system was carried much further. The celebrated Booth bull Albion was not only a son of the in-and-in Favourite-bred Comet, but his dam was a granddaughter of Favourite on both sides, and descended besides from both the sire and the dam of Favourite. It is not so possible to make an exact statement with regard to Pilot, for it is not known whether he was by Major (328), or Wellington (680). Nor does it much matter, for five-eighths of Major's and threequarters of Wellington's blood were derived from Favourite, by repeated inter-crossings; and Pilot's dam wa< not only by Favourite but she was also the grand-daughter of Foliambe, the sire of both the parents of Favourite. Marshal Beresford was, like Albion, a son of Cornet, and his dam was by a grand-

son of Favourite out of a daughter of Favourite. Su.varoow was by a son of Favourite, and his dam was a daughter of Favourite : and twin brother of Ben was from a cow by Foljambe, the double grandsire of Favourite. Even this dues not exhaust the subject. Many of the above-mentioned animals were otherwise related to each other by a common descent from Hubbaek, and from other progenitors. Albion has been called ' The Alloy Bull,' I think with very little reason. When it is remembered that he is the seventh in descent from that blood, and that therefore only one part of his blood came from the " Alloy," against 127 parts which were not derived from it, the chances against either good er evil resulting therefrom were infinitesimally small, and so no doubt such an acute observer as Mr Booth well knew."