Page:Husbandman and Housewife 1820.djvu/132

 of a starveling, from want of due nourishment.

The larger female has also a greater supply of milk, and her offspring is therefore more abundantly provided with nourishment after birth.

When the female is large in proportion to the male, the lungs of the offspring will also be greater; by crossing in this manner, there are produced animals with remarkably large chests, as has been often noticed: the advantage of large lungs has been already pointed out.

In animals where activity is required, this practice should not be extended so far as in those which are intended for the food of man.

The size of animals is commonly adapted to the soil which they inhabit; when the produce is scanty, the breed is small: the large sheep of Lincolnshire would starve, where the small sheep of Wales find abundant food.

Crossing may be attended with bad effects, even when begun on good principles, if the above rule be not attended to throughout; for instance, if large ewes were brought to Wales, and sent to the rams of the country, the offspring would be of improved form; and, if sufficiently fed, of larger size than the native animals, but the males of this bred would be disproportionately large to the native ewes, and therefore would produce a starveling ill formed race with them.

The general mistake in crossing has arisen from an attempt to increase the size of a native race of animals; being a fruitless effort to counteract the laws of nature; which, from theory, from, practice, and