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any eminent breeder who may be willing, and most of 

 them are so willing, men who have made the science of 

 reproduction a life-long study. The terms prepotency, 

 variability, heredity, and atavism must be the 

 elementary texts upon which he will base the ground- 

 work of his breeding efforts. Each factor will in its turn 

 have important bearings from time to time. By pre- 

 potency we mean the power inherent in certain individuals 

 of both sexes of stamping certain members of the family 

 with certain important characteristics, no matter how 

 various in points or blood their partners may be. 

 Variability is the striking dissimilarity in appearance, or 

 in personal characteristics of almost every puppy in the 

 litter. Heredity is the stamping of the character and points 

 of parents to their puppies. The next is of the most vital 

 importance in a breed whose mixed ancestry is by no 

 means remote. Atavism is the tendency of all animals 

 to throw back to their ancestors. The first point in the 

 full grasping of these terms is to remember that the doj 

 is the offspring of the whole line of blood from genera- 

 tions, and not merely the result of the alliance of his 

 sire and dam. 



The best basis to work upon is to take it that the sire 

 and dam between them contribute one-half of the in- 

 herited characteristics, and the four grand-parents 

 would contribute another quarter. It will be readily 

 conceded that success would therefore in a great measure 

 depend upon the breeder being as far as possible con- 

 versant with the faults and virtues of both sire and dam 

 and their back blood, with its characteristics as far back 

 as possible. It is a vexed question as to how far we 

 should inbreed for the purpose of stamping some im- 

 portant point. My own opinion, based upon experience 

 as varied and as wide as most breeders', is that for a, 

 proper regard to the stamina of the breed, the con- 

 scientious fancier for every once he breeds in should 



