Massingbred

“ Jack Massingbred—for he was the traveller whose straw hat and knapsack stood upon a table near—was amused at a scene so full of its native characteristics. The physiognomy, the dress, the bearing of the people, their greetings as they met, their conduct of a bargain, all bespoke a nation widely differing from the sister country, and set him a-dreaming as to how it was that equality of laws might very possibly establish anything but equality of condition amongst people so dissimilar. ”

“ Nelligan,” said Massingbred, with an easy smile. “If you be only as accurate in your knowledge of my affairs as you are with respect to my private friendships, this visit has certainly proceeded from some misconception. Your son and I were friends once upon a time. We are so no longer!”
“I never heard of this. I never knew you had quarrelled!”
“We have not, sir. We have not even met. The discourtesy he has shown me since my arrival here—his avoidance of me, too marked to be explained away—is an offence. The only misfortune is that it is one which can be practised with impunity.” ”

“ What a dangerous freemasonry is the use of a foreign language, lifting the speakers out of the ordinary topics, and leading them away to distant scenes and impressions, which, constituting a little world apart, give a degree of confidential feeling to intercourse. Massingbred would willingly have lent himself to the full enjoyment of this illusion; but Kate, with quicker tact, saw all the difficulties and embarrassment it would occasion, and under pretext of searching for some music, escaped at once from the spot. ”

“ It was a coffin borne by men bareheaded and sorrow-struck. An immense multitude followed, of every rank and age; sobs and sighs broke from them as they went. Not an eye was tearless, not a lip that did not tremble. At the head of this procession walked a small group whose dress and bearing bespoke their class. These were Barry Martin, leaning on Repton; Massingbred and the two Nelligans came behind.
The two coffins entered the churchyard at the same instant The uncle and the niece were laid side by side in the turf! ”

“ They left the spot together without a word. Grief had its own part for each. It is not for us to say where sorrow eat deepest, or in which heart the desolation was most complete.
“I'd not have known young Martin,” whispered Nelligan in Repton's ear; “he looks full twelve years older than when last I saw him.”
“The fast men of this age, sir, live their youth rapidly,” replied the other. “It is rarely their fortune to survive to be like me, or heaven knows what hearts they would be left with!”
While they thus talked, Massingbred and Joe Nelligan had strolled away into the wood. ”

“ It is not for us to determine the knotty point, but we may venture the opinion that the two first definitions of a cross-bred are not convincing to us, since in order to produce a cross-bred it is necessary to have a sire, or a dam, or both of defined breeds. Probably the most correct definition of a cross-bred animal is one bred from the mating of sire and dam of two distinct breeds, but the term is now loosely applied to an animal begotten by a sire or from a dam of pedigree breeding, the other parent being of no particular breed. ”

“ What we in America are apt colloquially to call a thoroughbred is only a horse which, in his looks, shows some decided infusion of good blood, or is sired by a well-bred horse. But it is to be remembered that of two horses with an equal strain of pure blood, one may have reverted to a coarse physical type, and the other to the finer. And the one who has inherited the undeniable stamp of the common-bred ancestor may also have inherited from the other side those qualities of constitution, courage, intelligence, and speed, which sum up the value of high English blood. ”

“ From the rapidity with which generations of this animal are multiplied, the variety of other breeds on which they are crossed, and the treatment to which they are subjected, it is not surprising that their descendants should rapidly assume distinct features. They furnish not only a strong dash of blood in the best class of large breeds, but in such of the smaller as have any pretensions to merit, they constitute the greater part of the improvement. Such are the Neapolitan, the Essex half-black, the Grass breed, and some others. ”

“ When a "blood horse" is spoken of, it means, so far as it means any thing, that his pedigree can be traced to Arabian or Barbary origin, and so is possessed of the peculiar type of structure and great nervous energy which usually attaches to "thorough-bred" horses. When a bull, or cow, or sheep is said to be of "pure blood," it means simply that the animal is of some distinct variety—that it has been bred from an ancestry all of which were marked by the same peculiarities and characteristics. ”

“ So many people appear to be content with the knowledge that the sire which they are purchasing has a recorded pedigree and is a pure bred sire eligible for entry in the herd book of its breed, but they forget that it is possible in the crossing of two pedigree animals of a similar breed to obtain as great a mixture of blood and points as in the mating of two cross-breds or two come-by-chances. Uniformity in a herd, stud, or flock can only be rendered comparatively certain by the continued use of sires of similar breeding. ”

“ But the case would be quite different if the winning sire and dam came from the same old established herd in which the animals had been bred for generations on similar lines. It is this concentration of certain qualities in generation after generation which renders the pedigree animal so intensely prepotent, particularly when mated with animals of an ordinary character or not possessing concentrated breeding. ”

“ The far too common practice is to purchase each boar required from a totally different herd, or from one of quite dissimilar breeding, with the result that there is not the slightest uniformity in the appearance or character of the herd, or of the mature animals when ready for market.
It is far too frequently forgotten that the chief value of a record of the pedigree is that by it one can trace the breeding of the animal's progenitors, and thus one is enabled to form some opinion of the probable produce—providing it is possible to learn the chief characteristics of the progenitors. ”

“ The selection of a mare, relatively larger than the horse, is an important rule in breeding, and it is believed that much of the success of Arabian and other Eastern horses as stock-getters, has resulted from the application of this principle. They possess valuable traits, but condensed within too small a compass. When such an animal is put to a well-bred, larger mare, the fœtus has abundance of room and nourishment to develop and perfect the circumscribed outlines of the male parent, and acquire for itself increased volume and character. ”

“ The fire crackled, and no other sound disturbed the stillness.
"Some one else will breed them," replied the vicar of the stables, with quietness: the sun always seemed to remain on his face after it had gone down. "They will be bred by some one else. The breeding of horses in the world will not be stopped because some one does not wish to breed them. ”

“ The sheep-breeder can, however, avoid the effects of in-and-in breeding, and at the same time preserve the character of his flock, by seeking rams of the same breed, possessing, as nearly as possible, the characteristics which he wishes to preserve in his own flock. ”

“ It is in this power of prepotency that one of the chief benefits from the use of a pure bred sire or dam arises. By the term pure bred is not meant merely that the names of a certain number of the forbears of the animal shall have been recorded in the register of the breed, but that the animal shall for a certain number of generations have been bred on similar lines so that it shall possess a considerable amount of concentrated blood. ”

“ In breeding horses, structure is first, and endowment with nervous energy is next to be seen to, and then pedigree—afterwards that these be fittingly united, by proper selection for coupling, in order to secure the highest degree of probability which the nature of the case admits, that the offspring may prove a perfect machine and be suitably endowed with motive power. ”

“ Breeders feel no doubt on this head; ask a man who has long reared Shorthorn or Hereford cattle, Leicester or Southdown sheep, Spanish or Game poultry, tumbler or carrier-pigeons, whether these races may not have been derived from common progenitors, and he will probably laugh you to scorn. The breeder admits that he may hope to produce sheep with finer or longer wool and with better carcases, or handsomer fowls, or carrier-pigeons with beaks just perceptibly longer to the practised eye, and thus be successful at an exhibition. ”

“ The usual varied foothill country led us through defiles, over ridges, and by charming groves. We began to see Masai cattle in great herds. The gentle humpbacked beasts were held in close formation by herders afoot, tall, lithe young savages with spears. In the distance and through the heat haze the beasts shimmered strangely, their glossy reds and whites and blacks blending together. In this country of wide expanses and clear air we could thus often make out a very far-off herd simply as a speck of rich colour against the boundless rolling plains. ”

“ By breeds, are understood such varieties as were originally produced by a cross or mixture, like the Leicester sheep for example, and subsequently established by selecting for breeding purposes only the best specimens and rejecting all others. In process of time deviations become less frequent and greater uniformity is secured; but there remains a tendency, greater or less in proportion to the time which elapses and the skill employed in selection, to resolve itself into its original elements, to breed back toward one or other of the kinds of which it was at first composed. ”

“ If, however, the cross is really a good and desirable one, then, by means of rigorous and continued selection, pursued for several generations, that is, by casting aside, as regards breeding purposes, every animal that does not exhibit uniformity, or possess the qualifications we are desirous of perpetuating, a valuable breed of animals may in the course of time be established. By this system many varieties of sheep have been so far improved as to become almost new breeds ”

“ The risk attending too close breeding as in the breeding of pure breds is also avoided provided that the herd from which the sires are bought is sufficiently large to furnish a change of blood, yet of similar breeding. ”

“ Pairing those very unlike, oftener results in loss than in gain. Mating a horse for speed with a draft mare, will more likely beget progeny good for neither, than for both. Avoid all extremes, and endeavor by moderate degrees to obtain the object desired.
Crossing, between different breeds, for the purpose of obtaining animals for the shambles, may be advantageously practiced to considerable extent, but not for the production of breeding animals. As a general rule cross-bred males should not be employed for propagation, and cross-bred females should be served by thorough-bred males. ”

“ This family of horses has not of course been bred long enough within themselves, to have attained to the eminence of a distinct breed. They are mentioned, merely as a type of what the serviceable roadster ought to be, and what he may become by the use of the proper instruments for breeding. And if the materials already in our hands are intelligently and perseveringly used, we can produce all we require of horse-flesh. ”

“ Any peculiarity may be made inherent in a breed by sedulously cultivating that peculiarity. Avoid above all things breeding in and in brother and sister, mother and son, father and daughter—all bad, but the first far worse than either of the others, since the blood of each is the same. The other two are only half so. To perfect form should be added high ranging qualities, high courage, great docility, keen nose, and great endurance. That is the acme of breeding. A few judicious crosses will enable you to acquire it for your kennel. ”

“ The Hunter may be quite thoroughbred, nearly thoroughbred, or half-bred. If for a light weight, say under twelve stone, and in such flying counties as Leicestershire and Northamptonshire, a thoroughbred should be ridden, provided the purse be long enough to procure one up to the weight and with the necessary qualities. A nearly thoroughbred will suit a weight of from twelve to sixteen stone, but beyond that a horse with great strength, good action, and a certain amount of breeding—in fact, a well-bred cart-horse—will be required. ”

“ To insure successful and beneficial crossing of distinct breeds, in order to produce a new and valuable variety, the breeder must have an accurate knowledge of the laws of procreation, and the varied influences of parents upon their offspring. All the breeds in this country are crosses, produced either by accident or design. Crossing does not necessarily produce a breed; but it always produces a variety, and that variety becomes a breed only where there is a sufficiency of stamina to make a distinctive race, and continue a progeny with the uniform or leading characteristics of its progenitors. ”

“ Although the benefits are most evident in the first cross, after which, from pairing the cross-bred animals, the defects of one breed or the other, or the incongruities of both, are perpetually breaking out—yet, unless the characteristics and conformation of the two breeds are altogether averse to each other, nature opposes no barrier to their successful admixture; so that in the course of time, by the aid of selection and careful weeding, it is practicable to establish a new breed altogether. ”