the great families of Shorthorns carefully conceal their sterility and want of
constitution. He adds that Mr. Bates, after he had bred his herd in-and-in for
some years, "lost in one season twenty-eight calves solely from want of
constitution.") asserts that many more calves are born cripples from
Shorthorns than from other and less closely interbred races of cattle.

Although by carefully selecting the best animals (as Nature effectually does
by the law of battle) close interbreeding may be long carried on with cattle,
yet the good effects of a cross between almost any two breeds is at once shown
by the greater size and vigour of the offspring; as Mr. Spooner writes to me,
"crossing distinct breeds certainly improves cattle for the butcher." Such
crossed animals are of course of no value to the breeder; but they have been
raised during many years in several parts of England to be slaughtered (17/8.
'Youatt on Cattle' page 202.); and their merit is now so fully recognised,
that at fat-cattle shows a separate class has been formed for their reception.
The best fat ox at the great show at Islington in 1862 was a crossed animal.

The half-wild cattle, which have been kept in British parks probably for 400
or 500 years, or even for a longer period, have been advanced by Culley and
others as a case of long-continued interbreeding within the limits of the same
herd without any consequent injury. With respect to the cattle at Chillingham,
the late Lord Tankerville owned that they were bad breeders. (17/9. 'Report
British Assoc. Zoolog. Sect.' 1838.) The agent, Mr. Hardy, estimates (in a
letter to me, dated May, 1861) that in the herd of about fifty the average
number annually slaughtered, killed by fighting, and dying, is about ten, or
one in five. As the herd is kept up to nearly the same average number, the
annual rate of increase must be likewise about one in five. The bulls, I may
add, engage in furious battles, of which battles the present Lord Tankerville
has given me a graphic description, so that there will always be rigorous
selection of the most vigorous males. I procured in 1855 from Mr. D. Gardner,