BREEDING OF HORSES. 693 



in breeding for sheep, reaches the conclusion that the sheep-breeder 

 may avoid any bad effects of in-and-in breeding, and at the same 

 time preserve the character of his flock, by seeking rams of the same 

 breed, and possessing as nearly as possible the characteristics which 

 he wishes to produce in his own flock. lie explains that this system 

 of breeding by no means implies ' incestuous '' connection, for as 

 Stonehenge defines it, it is the " pairing of relatives within the degree 

 of second cousins, twice or more in succession." Mr. Randall 

 defines the practice to be pursued as follows : " Every one desirous of 

 starting a flock will find it his best economy, when the proper flocks 

 to draw rams from are not convenient, to purchase several of the 

 same breed, but of different strains of blood. Thus ram number 

 2 can be put upon the offspring of ram number 1, and number 3 

 can be put upon the offspring of both, and both upon the offspring 

 of number 3. The changes which can be rung upon these distinct 

 strains of blood, without in-and-in breeding close enough to be at- 

 tended with any undesirable results, are innumerable." Brother and 

 sister are of the same blood; father and daughter half, and so on. 

 Breeding between animals possessing one-eighth the same blood 

 would not be considered very close breeding, and it is not uncom- 

 mon, in rugged, well-formed families, to breed between those possess- 

 ing one-fourth of the same* blood. The original traits of wild horses 

 and wild cattle remain unaffected by reason of the entire absence of 

 foreign blood, and when stock is in this state of nature there is the 

 closest in-breeding. If then, such traits as these animals possess are 

 perpetuated by keeping the blood close within itself, why may not 

 the same system be expected to produce like results when applied to 

 domesticated animals? Surely it may be; and experience shows 

 that all the highly improved breeds have had imbedded in 

 their constitutions the artificial peculiarities upon which their value 

 depends, by the systematic exclusion of blood which might lead to 

 divergencies, and by the rigid adherence to that blood which most 

 conspicuously showed its possession of the desired form or power. 

 This is " in-and-in breeding," and it is the only way in which such 

 results can be attained. 



It must be remembered that close in-breeding tends to refine 

 and render delicate the constitution, and if persisted in too far, 

 or beyond the limits here laid down, hereditary diseases and disabili- 

 ties are sure to appear. Hence the breeder must be constantly on 

 the alert to combat such tendency, in breeding pure animals. 



BREEDING OF HORSES. 



Sanders, in his valuable work on "Horse Breeding," says: " I 

 have often referred to the heterogenous character of the horse-stock 

 of our country, which is a conglomeration of every breed and type 

 of the horse kind in the known world. Until very recently no intel-. 

 ligent effort has been made to keep any of the breeds pure except 



