IN-AND-IN BREEDING 165 



IN-AND-IN BREEDING 



WHEN ANY NEW BREED of animals is first introduced into this country, 

 in-and-in breeding (by which is to be understood the pairing of relations 

 within the degree of second cousins twice or more in succession) can 

 scarcely be avoided ; and hence, when first the value of the Arab was 

 generally recognized, the breeder of the race-horse of those days could not 

 well avoid having recourse to the plan. Thus we find, in the early pages 

 of the Stud-book, constant instances of very close in-breeding, often carried 

 to such an extent as to become incestuous. The result was our modern 

 thorough-bred ; but it does not follow that because the plan answered in 

 producing that celebrated kind of animal, it will be equally successful in 

 keeping up the breed in its original perfection. In British Rural Sports, 

 I have given a series of examples of success resulting from each plan, 

 which I shall not now repeat, merely remarking that the opinion which 

 I formed from an attentive examination of them remains unchanged. This 

 opinion was expressed in the following words : 



" If the whole of the pedigrees to which I have drawn attention are 

 attentively examined, the breeder can have no hesitation in coming to the 

 conclusion, that in-breeding, carried out once or twice, is not only not a 

 bad practice, but is likely to be attended with good results. Let him ask 

 what horses have been the most remarkable of late years as stallions, and, 

 with very few exceptions, he will find they were considerably in-bred. It 

 has been remarked, that the Touchstone and Defence blood almost always 

 hits with the Selim ; but it is forgotten that the one was already crossed 

 with that horse, and the other with his brother Rubens. On the other 

 hand, the Whisker blood in the Colonel has not succeeded so well, it 

 being made up of much crossed and more distantly related particles, and 

 therefore not hitting with the Selim and Castrel blood, like his cousins, 

 Touchstone and Defence. It has, however, partially succeeded when 

 in-bred to the Waxy and Buzzard blood, as in Chatham and Fugleman, 

 who both reunite these three strains. The same applies to Coronation, 

 who unites the Whalebone blood in Sir Hercules with that of Rubens in 

 Ruby; but as Waxy and Buzzard, the respective ancestors of all theso 

 horses, were both grandsons of Herod, and great-grandsons of Snap, it 

 only strengthens the argument in favour of in-breeding. This conclusion 

 is in accordance with the 14th and 15th axioms, which embody the state 

 of our present knowledge of the theory of generation; and if they are 

 examined, they will be seen to bear upon the present subject, so as to lead 

 one to advise the carrying out of the practice of in-and-in breeding to the 

 same extent as has been found so successful in the instances which I have 

 given. Purity of blood is intimately connected with the practice, because 

 the nearer it is to one standard, the more unmixed it is, and by con- 

 sequence the more fully it is represented in the produce. Hence, it is 

 doubly needful to take care that this pure blood is of a good kind ; because 

 if bad, it will perpetuate its bad qualities just as closely as it would the 

 good, or perhaps still more so." 



I have nothing to add to these remarks ; and if I were to adduce the 



