English Setters 141 



if there is to be any elimination of the pro- 

 geny of young sires because of their inferior- 

 ity, that elimination must occur, for English 

 setters, principally in the later generations. 



This is precisely what the pedigrees of the 

 champion dogs show. The sires of champions 

 averaged 8 years of age when the champions 

 were born; the grandsires averaged 6.75 

 years when the sires and dams were born; the 

 great-grandsires averaged 5.32 years. These 

 ages, and the facts involved, make it per- 

 fectly clear that in producing animals of 

 champion character, the progeny of young 

 sires are relentlessly eliminated whenever 

 such elimination is possible. As the ages of 

 sires mean time between generations, and 

 time is a factor in the measurement of energy, 

 the elimination of animals having short time 

 and the preservation of animals having long 

 time clearly point to the inheritance of the 

 energy acquired by the sire in the time in- 

 volved. That there may be no mistake as to 

 the significance of this factor, it is only neces- 

 sary to point to the fact that, in every case 



