158 PRINCIPLES OF STOCK-BREEDING. 



The importance of securing prepotency in the male 

 parent has apparently been recognized by all the great 

 breeders, as we find, as a rule, that their breeding-males 

 have been selected from sub-families that are more 

 highly inbred than the average of their stock. In 

 many cases the practice of in-and-in breeding has been 

 limited to certain families that were set apart for 

 breeding-sires, and this on many accounts would un- 

 doubtedly be the best method. 



Mr. Hammond's " Queen " family, from which he 

 selected his rams, were bred in-and-in to a greater ex- 

 tent than the rest of his flock. Jonas Webb kept five 

 separate flocks, the rams used by himself being drawn 

 from his favorite family; the "Duchess" tribe was 

 the source of the sires of Mr. Bates's herd, and Mr. 

 Booth had his favorite families, from which the sires 

 of his own herd are descended. 



The degree of high breeding required to secure 

 prepotency in a given male will evidently depend upon 

 the relative development and breeding of the females 

 with which he is coupled ; the better the females, and 

 the greater the uniformity in their characteristics, the 

 more intense must be the power of transmission in the 

 male to secure a predominance of his peculiarities in 

 his offspring, and this intensity in the power of trans- 

 mission can only be produced by still higher breeding. 



The supposed cases of spontaneous prepotency 

 and accidental variation cannot reasonably be claimed 

 to constitute exceptions to the generally acknowledged 

 laws that determine variations and regulate their trans- 

 mission, as they are readily explained when all of the 

 facts relating to them can be ascertained. 



