THE PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING 39 



done the diametrical opposite pitted a bad fault against 

 an opposing one, and left it to Nature to fight the matter out. 



Occasionally very occasionally he may produce a 

 good dog by a mere fluke. Through the curious working 

 of the phenomena of natural variability or atavism it 

 may chance that one member of an uneven litter is above 

 the average. But this rare exception only goes to prove 

 the rule, and the result is always utterly unreliable as 

 tending in any future desirable direction. 



In the brief confines of a single chapter it is, of course, 

 impossible to supply more than a sketchy outline of the 

 fundamental principles which the successful breeder must 

 make it his business to study and to master. Fortunately, 

 in dog-breeding the results are comparatively speedy, 

 and it is possible for a patient man to note the steady 

 improvement of successive generations in the required 

 direction without growing grey-haired in the process. 



If, at the first attempt, the result falls short of his 

 expectations, he must set himself carefully to reason out 

 the details to which his failure is attributable, and, 

 profiting by his experience, try again. 



Assuming that he has carefully followed one and all 

 of the preceding instructions, he is quite at liberty to vent 

 his virtuous indignation upon the luckless author whose 

 advice he has conscientiously carried out. 



Fortified with the knowledge that nothing has been 

 done which can tend in any degree towards the deterio- 

 ration of the breed, I am well content, as they say in 

 America, to let it go at that ! 



