142 FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY 



spring. Some of its important principles have already 

 been alluded to under preceding heads. The first 

 great rule of breeding is that like produces like. But 

 this must be held to extend to blood as well as indi- 

 vidual characteristics, or else it is a rule which will 

 mislead the inexperienced. Let two mongrel animals 

 of the closest resemblance be coupled together, and 

 there is not the least certainty that they will repro- 

 duce themselves in their offspring, or that their off- 

 spring, of different years, will be like each other. I 

 have -already spoken of the cropping out of base blood. 

 Iii selecting animals for coupling, especial pains 

 should be taken not to interbreed those possessing the 

 same defect, because in that case observation proves 

 that the offspring inherit something like the aggregate 

 of the defect of both parents that is to say, if the ram 

 is defective in the crops (in proper fulness back of the 

 shoulders), to an extent expressed by 2, and the ewe 

 to an extent expressed by 3, their offspring will pos- 

 sess the defect to something like the extent of 5. Of 

 course, this rule is not invariable, and would not con- 

 tinue to apply to its full extent if breeding between 

 the produce of these similarly defective animals was 

 continued, for in that case they would soon have no 

 crops at all. I like the arithmetical form of the state- 

 ment, however, because it holds up before the mind 

 in a tangible and impressive form the consequences 

 of one of the worst errors of bad breeding.* 



* It would be strictly accurate to say that if animals possessing the 

 same defect are interbred with each other, the offspring should be 

 expected to inherit that defect to a greater extent than either parent, 

 and that continuing such a course of breeding would soon increase 

 the defect to the greatest practicable extent, and in the case of defects 

 affecting the constitution of the animal, to a fatal extent. 



