Note 40 — JOURNAL OF A NATURALIST. (continued 3)

As an event connected with the subject of temporary augmentation and diminution of creatures, I may be pardoned for noting the predominant increase of sex in some years. The most remarkable instance, that I remember of late, was in 1825. How far it extended I do not know, but for many miles round us we had in that year scarcely any female calves born. Dairies of forty or fifty cows produced not more than five or six, those of inferior numbers, in the same proportion, and the price of female calves for rearing was greatly augmented. In the wild state, an event like this would have considerable influence upon the usual product of some future herd. In the ensuing spring, we had in the village an extraordinary instance of fecundity in the sheep afforded us, one farmer having an increase of sixteen lambs from five ewes, four of which produced three each, and one brought forth four; however, only a small portion of these little creatures lived to maturity.