

210 AMERICAN CATTLE. 



himself who has evidently paid much attention to the subject. 

 We give his notes as sent to us: 



"IN-AND-IN BREEDING. SHORT-HORNS. ESTABLISHING OR 



FIXING THE VARIETY AS AN IMPROVED BREED. 



"In my essay, published in the Ohio Agricultural Report for 

 1854, on 'The General Principles of Propagation,' &c., page 

 179, I use this language: 



" ' And, if there are advantages arising from the having placed 

 in the line of the direct ancestry, near and remote, of our herds, 

 a great number of approved individuals, both male and female, 

 as has been seen, it follows that there must be far greater advan-* 

 tages arising from having the same one individual if he be of 

 marked superiority placed in that line the greatest possible num- 

 ber of times. This is done by 'in-and-in breeding," and is the 

 object of it. Now, it is easier to find this one unsurpassed 

 individual than to find many, for, in the many, there will most 

 certainly be one to be preferred to all the rest. Then, under 

 the operation of the principle of atavism, (ancestral excellence 

 or peculiarity,) the chances, that the resemblance of such une- 

 qualled ancestor will be obtained, must be in the ratio of the 

 number of times that he occurs in the ascending lines. Hence 

 greater uniformity and greater excellence in all the progeny. 

 An apt illustration of this is found, in the frequent occurrence of 

 the Godolphin Arabian, in the pedigrees of all our blooded horses, 

 carried back to him as their founder.' 



"To give greater force to the thoughts expressed in this quota- 

 tion, I have, ever since they were committed to paper, entertained 

 the purpose, at some time, to make the actual count. Instead, 

 however, of using the thorough bred horse as the illustration, I 

 now find it much easier, owing to the greater completeness of 

 the materials at hand for making such a count, to carry out that 

 design by using the improved short-horns as an illustration, and 



