HEREDITY

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2656, 30 December 1915, Page 8

HEREDITY

WHAT IT MEANS \ln surveying the achievements of the pioneers ot live stock improvements, it is perhaps, not nc-cessary to revert to tho very earliest days of stock-breeding, though, it»is evident that the. question was closely studied by many ancient i.. peoples,-as might be- expected, in view •: ,of.:,the'large part that agriculture and pastoral pursuits played in their lives and occupations. There are- some curious evidences of this in tho Old Testament, m the maxims of ; the Arabs, and • in the writings of Xenoplion, Varro, . Columella, I'alladins; and especially in Virgil's "'Georgics," where the oftenquoted phrase occurs about distinguishing: all the young stock' into . branding ; , tiro, '.'to note, the tribe, the lineage of > the sire ; whom to reserve for the -husband ' of the t herd', or who .-shall -be -Ho , sacrifice preferred." . For the" present purpose, it .will, be . sufficient to start with the work of the first 'great improver, Robert Ba&owell, • : of Dishley, Leicesterhiro (born 1726,. i died.l79s), whose operations date from, about 1750. • . The '■ country had; settled down "after fierce internal conflicted and industry and agriculture were receiving attention. The cultivator of the land : came'first,'rarid turnips .and artificial grasses were introduced and grown, .in -order to provide food for stock in~win-j . ter. The population was rapidly - increasing,and the artisans wanted- more and better, food. , . Not the Only One. Bakewell was-not, the'only, one-to ■ perceive the quickly-expanding require- . mcnts, but he undoubtedly at once took tho foremost. position, ' and adopted, methods of breeding, which, in a modilied : form, have been continued over ' since. A hard-headed, practical former, - keen on possessing good stock, and devoted to experiments in : breeding, as well as in cropping and cultivation, he - soon- attracted .the notice of the leading mon of his time; and, if he did not fully explain his views in books or . pamphlets, ho was' (contrary to tho opinions of some) quite open and communicative. as to his, practice. Arthur' Young, who j was the travelling Agricultural Commis- .! sioner of-.'his''/time, visited- him twice (in 1770 and 1785), and it is. tolerably evident that George Culley's book, "Observations on Live Stock ,(first edition ■ 1885) was penned as the result of a close examination of Bakewell's work, and ; was meant to expound his views. It Reoms to be suggested by Culley that he wrote, the book because lie couid not induce Bakewell to undertake it. There is, indeed; little evidence that '-'Bakewell possessed any. literary gifts, . : so '.that what, has. to bo done,; is' to get at -Bakewell's system and ideas through •young-and Culley. - , ■ ' They may, as stated by these writers, be shortly expressed as follow: In opposition to the then prevailing practice, which was to secure improvement • toy crossing-breeds, Bakewell; effected; his object by -keeping within the breeds he selected; his leading principle -was to put the. best to the best, regard ' to '-affinity' of, blood,.and he, acted entirely- upon ,the ;conviction ~ that lilco ' tended to-'.beget- like. : -''-- ; His operations show that ho firmly believed in the principle of : heredity, and. that, by breeding, on' those lines, he could' I ' vastly. ; improve tho various breeds that he ' took'in hand.' These were Longhorn cattle, Leicester sheep, and the old English black cart horse, to the improvement of all which lie successfully , devoted -hiniself. In opposition to the general system.' of his contemporaries, he .selected,.animals of moderate size, and 1 secured from other -breeders those specimens that most nearly approached his, ideal.' Inbreeding - was.'.apparently,carried! to,'extremes, but it must be remembered that Bakewell was-" working with strong, rough sorts, and that,

in the then undeveloped state of the. breeds tuid their wide variation of Wood, lie could at the outset apply tho priuCiplo of consanguineous breeding with impunity, where similar procedure now would result in disaster.

Bakewell maintained 1 that, by the exorciso of intelligent care in selecting, it is quite possiblo to got beasts to weigh where you want them to weigh, in the .roasting, instead of the boiling pieces that the form should give the greatest value in tho smallest compass; that tho shape which does that is correlated with a hardy constitution and great readiness to fatten; that the shape of a barrel,-, swelling -m the ' middle, and gently lessening towards the ends, is the true.model; that tho smaller the bone, the truer the form, .and the better consequently the return for food consumed. Tho breeder, he declared, must find the best machine for _ turning the direct products of the land into products of higher money value as food for man. Fat Meat Was Wanted. The people then wanted fat meat, and Bakewell gave them what they required.' He' studied the structural formation closely, and evidently modified form in an extraordinary manner, refining the bone, reducing the size and wastefulness of the carcass, broadening the backs, and cultivating the habit of early maturity. It has excited surprise that Bakewell should have chosen, the Longhorn, rather than tho Shorthorn; as tho variety on which to carry out his experiments, hut the explanation is simple. The Shorthorn ,had not been generally, modified to suit tho growing needs of the time, and was maintained or*'i»-the Teeswater and adjoining districts, whereas the Longhorn at that period was <the predominant race ■ throughout all parts of England. Laws of Heredity. " Much has* been written regarding Bakewell's work, and there have been read into it views and opinions that the great l breeder himself would probably have repudiated. Still, it comes out quite clearly that he believed in tho selection of the best, in the power of heredity, and in the value of concentration of blood. Is it not possible to reconcile his operations with tho modern' theory of dominant and recessive characters ? He possessed the breeder's eye which enabled him to select animals that most conformed to his ideas of perfection, and he then bred from, the, strain, concentrating the blood so that the good qualities of which he was in search were strengthened and perpetuated in successive 'generations. Evidently his belief was , that only in this way could' success be achieved, arid the -results proved in a remarkablo manner the accuracy, of his judgment and the soundness of his system. - >' Popularisation of a system, ; The., system popularised by Bakewell has been dealt with at this length because it practically explains what was done by the other noted breeders and improvers.. The C'ollings carried it out to an extreme improvement of with the Herefords; Quartly with the Devons, and Hugh Watson' with the AberdeenAngus, as well as many others with horses, sheep, and pigs. They worked on the same lines, the chief modification of tho later_J)reedei s being in securing concentration- of -Meod, without "so much close-breeding, as~was adopted by Bakewell and his immediate followers, the Brothers Colling. There was, even-'in Bakewell's time, a strong ajzita- ' tion against tho scheme in breeding ho [.practised, and it was denounced sc it violation of the teaching of As already explained, what was possible, to Bakewell in dealing with animals of strong frame, great constitutional vigour, mixed and divergent blood, was found .impracticable by those who owned stock that bad. become more refined, and were jilready closely related. Preserving Distinct Breeds. As regards the preservation in Great Britain of so: many distinct breeds of live stock, there can be little doubt that this-was originally aided by difficulties of travelling, which necessarily led to exclusiveness, while the agriculturists in each locality were proud of their native varieties, and in some rough-and-ready way tried to preserve their purity, and also to improve them. The chief danger from crossing, arose when the idea became general that th'o best and quickest way to advance the merit, of a breed was by introducing an alien strain. A careful examination of the histories of breeds shows, however, that, while outside blood was in many cases introduced, it was not sufficiently powerful to disturb tho main character of tlie more highly-concentrated strains.

'Jliese impressions may have imparted fresh points that were desired, but they wero absorbed~in the older stocks, and did licfi obliterate their distinctiveness. Tile conditions may be compared to the river which-talcs in various tributaries, but. the course of the main stream is not altered, though the volume is increased. This explanation may bo held to' account for the prepotonoy of the; old established breeds; and, again, so far, it is perhaps on the Mendelian lines of dominant and recessivo characters. Limitations. Claims have been set up for heredity that, if they were well founded, would make tho exercise of the breeder's art very easy. According to these, ho would merely have to select the best male and mate him with tho best female, with a mathematical certainty that the progeny would bo as ho desired in shapes, early-maturity, or deep-milking properties, as the case might be. J3ut it is well known that the law of heredity is subject to many limitations, some of which have been explained by those other forms of the same prineiplo—the tendency to reversion, prepotency, variation, etc. Perhaps some of these views may bo old-fashioned, and are to be more correctly explained by the new breed soien<n>. Prepotent Sires and- Dams. At any rate, 0110 can see the enormous influences of prepotent sires or dams, as there are instances on record in which they have transformed an entire breed. Such wore Collings's Favourite and Cruickshauk's Lancaster Comet and Champion of England, among Shorthorns; the Keillor Jocks, I 1 ride of Aberdeen, Erica and Jilt, among Aber-deen-Angus; Horace and Lord Wilton among Herefords, and so on; while, in thorooughbreds, tho race may be said to largely descend from three sires, Eclipse, Matchem, and Herod. Then, in Clydesdales, there are Darnlev' and Prince of Wales; in Shires, Lincolnshire Lad 11, William the Conqueror, Harold, and. Premier; in Hackneys, J'ireaway, Confidence, Lord Derby .11, Denmark, and Danegclt; in Hackney ponies, Sir George and Sir Horaco; and in Polo Ponies, Rose Water and Sandiway. < The great breeders, sometimes by skill, «nd sometimes, apparently, almost by accident, selected or preserved those prepotent sires, and, becoming convinced of their excellent breeding powers,' worked with their blood until their herds, studs, or flocks, and those of 'others, were full of it. They were practical breeders, and wore unable to theorise about the causes of their success; but t-hey .accomplished the desired results, and their monuments are to be found in the splendid breeds which they founded or improved. ■ It is to practical breeders that the pedigree system is due with respect to live stock, and it will take some theorising to demolish it as useless. The herd book, stud books, and flock books may bo called the breeder's navigating chart; they tell him what to choose and what to avoid, especially when they are explained by breed histories which describe the individual animals. Pedigree has to bo used with discretion, and generally nowadays its lessons and limits are well understood. —The late Mr. James Sinclair, in the "Farmer's Advocate" (Canada).