LINE AND NATURAL BREEDING 17 



maintained and the imminent daggers of close-breeding are 

 averted. An occasional in-cross is not avoided and does no 

 injury. The aim is excellence in a particular direction, and, 

 if only superior specimens be employed, the law of " like 

 begetting like" is a sufficient guarantee of the ultimate 

 results. Warfield, discussing this important question, says : 



" In a long acquaintance with cattle breeding and famili- 

 arity with methods pursued in many herds, I have seen 

 much which has led me to thorough persuasion that the 

 correct system was to breed the best to the best and to 

 avoid close affinities. Close study of the results in the show 

 ring lead me to the conclusion that, while an occasional 

 animal of great merit is found to be the result of in-and-in 

 breeding, a large proportion of winners are descended from 

 winners, particularly on the sire's side, and mainly out of 

 families of cattle bred in promiscuous manner. . . . Out 

 of every ten celebrated prize-winners in recent years, nine 

 have been miscellaneously bred." 



While this pronouncement voices the general though not 

 universal opinion of Shorthorn breeders of the present day, 

 it must not be forgotten that the statement does not cover 

 the entire field, as the reference is to American cattle, which 

 were intensely in-bred, after a high level of excellence had 

 been reached by the disparaged system, before they crossed 

 the Atlantic. 



In dealing with the modification of old and the formation 

 of new breeds by crossing, we find that most of our modern 

 breeds of sheep have been formed or improved by crossing 

 old types with breeds specially adapted for communicating 

 desirable qualities to them, aided by generations of rigid 

 selection in definite lines. All the Down breeds, other than 

 the South or Sussex Down, are indebted to that breed for 

 much of their quality as butchers' animals. The Oxford 

 Down breed was formed about 1830 by crossing Cotswold 

 rams with Hampshire ewes, and in some cases with South 

 Downs. Many of the Longwool breeds are indebted in wool 

 and in early maturity to the English Leicester. And our 

 modern breeds of pigs are descended from the progeny of 

 ancient British forms repeatedly crossed with imported 

 Neapolitan and Chinese types. 



The Dexter - Shorthorn (p. 93) was formed by the 

 repeated use of Shorthorn bulls on Dexter cows and their 



B 



