LINEBREEDING 
RicHarp H. Woop 
Heathwood Farm, Lewiston, Mich. 
(eka Garena fee ae 
( Hiawatha III 
| | Seli f Hiawatha 
litiiaenen ee i 
| Hiawatha IV \ Rodie 
Hiawatha 
JAN) ( [lp Sian ge 
Lodeski \ | Luda 
i ieee at 
H A 
abe liver aztec aay | 
Hi th 
| DAISY eras (eae - ae II 
nie Naiis 
AN ILLUSTRATION OF LINEBREEDING 
The animal Lodeski is linebred to Hiawatha. The blood of Hiawatha has been perpetuated 
and intensified. The only animals in the herd that do not carry Hiawatha blood are Jada, Rodie, 
Luda and Norie. But take notice that while Lodeski is strong in the blood of Hiawatha, she 
carries but a small percentage of the blood of Jada. She is not bred in line to that animal, but 
rather to her great grand sire Hiawatha. Mating Lodeski to any animal carrying Hiawatha 
blood will still be linebreeding with reference to him; his blood can be carried by either sire or 
dam and linebreeding continued. To make the matter more plain suppose that Jada is mated 
with a son of Rodie and the offspring is mated with a descendant of Luda and the offspring is 
then mated with Lodeska. Not one of these animals is related to Hiawatha, although they are 
related to each other and to Lodeski. The use of such offspring upon Lodeski would be inbreeding, 
to be sure, but it would not be linebreeding with reference to Hiawatha. This ought to illustrate 
that while linebreeding is always inbreeding there are many forms of inbreeding that are not 
linebreeding. 
The theory of Mendelism is duly recognized by the writer, and he does not mean that the 
percentage of blood always indicates inheritance. 
His only aim is to bring about a better under- 
standing of the meaning of certain terms or words used by breeders and experimenters. 
HE term ‘‘linebreeding’’ is im- 
properly used by many of the 
present day writers. It is often 
confused with “‘inbreeding.’’ Even some 
of the editors of agricultural papers are 
using the two terms as though their 
meaning were the same. The proper 
use of a term is to express the idea that 
called for its original use. For many 
years prominent live stock breeders 
upon both continents have practiced 
inbreeding, which is any plan of mating 
in which sire and dam are what is called 
blood relations, in an undefined but 
fairly close degree. The number of 
combinations and permutations of 1n- 
breeding are almost beyond computing. 
One form of inbreeding is called ‘‘line- 
breeding.’”’ But many cases of inbreed- 
ing are not linebreeding. 
Someone has said that linebreeding 
is a mild form of inbreeding, This is 
not always true. It may be a very in- 
tensive or close form of inbreeding. 
The term linebreeding was used by 
the early breeders to cover only one 
plan of inbreeding. When one of the 
old time breeders found an animal, sire 
or dam, that possessed one or more 
characters that he especially desired to 
perpetuate, he bred that animal upon 
his own progeny or upon some animal 
closely related to him that resembled 
him in the desired points or charac- 
teristics. Such mating is the begin- 
ning of a system of linebreeding, and 
the offspring of such mating can be 
said to be linebred for that one genera- 
tion. But tocarry outa system of line- 
breeding so that future progeny can be 
didied 
II9 
