IN-BREEDING 235 



breeding practice, Gentry says: 1 "It has long been con- 

 ceded that Longfellow 16,835 was the greatest boar known 

 to the breed, in this country at least. He was out of an 

 imported sow and one of the best I ever saw. His sire, 

 Charmar's Duke 13,360, I bred, and he was a great one, 

 too. He was sired by an imported boar and was out of 

 an imported sow, and this sow and the dam of Longfellow 

 were got by the same boar. After the death of Charmar's 

 Duke 13,360, which happened when he was only a two- 

 year-old, I kept his best son, Longfellow, and after Long- 

 fellow's death his best sons, and after their death, their 

 best sons. Thus Longfellow, Longfellow's sons, and now 

 his grandsons, have followed each other in use on my herd. 

 One of -the largest and best boars I have ever produced, 

 one which I showed at the World's Fair at Chicago in 

 1893, weighing at 13 months and 6 days of age, 660 pounds, 

 with as much action, strength, vigor and masculine 

 development as any boar I ever saw, was produced by a 

 son of Longfellow out of a daughter of Longfellow sired 

 by the sire of Longfellow. Thus the three top successive 

 sires in his pedigree were the sire of Longfellow, Longfellow 

 and a son of Longfellow. I could name many good ones 

 bred as closely and, in fact, almost every animal in my 

 herd has been produced by as close in-breeding on both 

 sides." (See Plate XV.) 



" I have practiced in-breeding more from necessity 

 than from any other reason. I believe I have not used a 

 boar other than my own breeding for twenty years." 



After a lifetime's experience with in-breeding the 

 conclusions of Gentry are significant : " If it is true that 

 in-breeding intensifies weakness of constitution, lack of 

 vigor, or too great fineness of bone, as we all believe, is 



1 Gentry, Amer. Breeders' Assoc., vol. I, 1905, pp. 170-171. 



