Note 5 — Chapter XVII · ON THE GOOD EFFECTS OF CROSSING, AND ON THE EVIL EFFECTS OF CLOSE INTERBREEDING.

I give this on the authority of Nathusius, ‘Ueber Shorthorn Rindvieh,’ 1857, s. 71, (see also ‘Gardener’s Chronicle,’ 1860, p. 270). But Mr. J. Storer, a large breeder of cattle, informs me that the parentage of Clarissa is not well authenticated. In the first vol. of the ‘Herd Book,’ she was entered as having six descents from Favourite, “which was a palpable mistake,” and in all subsequent editions she was spoken of as having only four descents. Mr. Storer doubts even about the four, as no names of the dams are given. Moreover, Clarissa bore “only two bulls and one heifer, and in the next generation her progeny became extinct.” Analogous cases of close interbreeding are given in a pamphlet published by Mr. C. Macknight and Dr. H. Madden, ‘On the True Principles of Breeding;’ Melbourne, Australia, 1865.