118 FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 



I do not recommend it per se, for who shall decide 

 what perfection is ? there comes a time, generally, 



Book fully proves. It is true that his Duchess family became impo- 

 tent ceased to breed ; and this has been seized on as a proof of the 

 danger of in-and-in breeding. But Mr. Bates did not so regard it. 

 He continued his previous course of in-and-in breeding with his other 

 animals until his death, and with triumphant success. The editor of 

 the American Short-Horn Herd Book writes me: "As to Mr. Bates's 

 cows being barren, that defect related to one family only, the Duch- 

 esses, which was constitutional in the first of them, and probably ac- 

 cidental." To the point of their ceasing to breed, they apparently 

 grew more perfect in every particular. Mr. Price, whose Herefords 

 were the best in England in his day, declared, in an article published 

 in the British Farmers' Magazine, that he had not gone beyond his 

 own herd for a bull or a cow for forty years. 



It is not denied that Bakewell selected his original flock of long- 

 wooled sheep from different flocks and families wherever he could ob- 

 tain most perfection, but after that he bred in-and-in to the period of 

 his death, and the Dishley sheep did not evince their subsequent fee- 

 bleness of constitution when under his direction. The same state- 

 ment will apply to Jonas Webb, the great breeder of South Downs. 

 The Stud Book is full of examples of celebrated horses produced by 

 close in-and-in breeding. Favorite varieties of the pig have been pro- 

 duced in the same way. There are families of rabbits, game, fowls, 

 pigeons, etc., which have been bred in-and-in for a long course of gen- 

 erations without deterioration of constitution and with a constant im- 

 provement of the points regarded in such animals. 



But the misfortune of it is, that while in-and-in breeding is the 

 readiest road to uniformity and perfection in the thoroughly compe- 

 tent breeder's hands, it is the " edge tool" with which the incompetent 

 one is sure to inflict swift destruction on his animals and his own in- 

 terests. And there is another misfortune. Every man who owns 

 animals fancies himself a competent breeder. He who has spent his 

 life in other pursuits, reads a few books, picks up a few phrases, 

 watches the proceedings of his shepherd a little, and then fancies ho 

 is a breeder ! And he is not more mistaken in this supposition than is 

 the unreading man, brought up on the farm, who has no knowledge 

 on the subject outside of its traditions, and who, with the cant of " ea> 

 perience" ever on his tongue, never tried a carefully and properly con- 

 ducted experiment in his life. No man can be a really able breeder 



