BREEDING. 149 



practised bj skilful horse-breeders with excellent results, so far 

 as high-bred stock is concerned ; inasmuch as it has assured 

 the transmission of the special fixed qualities which have made 

 certain strains of pedigree stock so famous and valuable. 



As a writer on this subject judiciously remarks : " It is the 

 only way to hand down the undiluted influence of some extra- 

 ordinary animal, to perpetuate and give a fixed character to 

 rare and desirable peculiarities and qualities, to produce an 

 animal that will not be half one thing and half another, as 

 most animals are ; but will be all one thing, all one blood, one 

 strain — one strong predominating tendency of form, quality, or 

 character. It is evident that in the ordinary course of breeding, 

 the character of any extraordinary progenitor must soon be lost. 

 His son is only half his blood, and if the other half is entirely 

 foreign, he has probably lost all power of transmission already. 

 His grandson has only a quarter, his great-grandson only an 

 eighth, the next remove one-sixteenth, the next one thirty- 

 second, and so on. The extraordinary blood is lost, and may 

 never be picked up again. On the other hand, by breed, 

 ing in-and-in, we can preserve the rare blood and the rare 

 qualities, and hand them down, little impaired, to millions of 

 descendants." 



But this consanguineous breeding demands the greatest 

 care and attention, and should never be carried far, except for 

 special and powerful reasons ; as defects become intensified, 

 and predisposition to imperfection of shape or tendency to dis- 

 ease greatly increased thereby. 



" To get very fixed character, with undoubted power to 

 transmit its qualities, you must often keep working on the 

 same strain of blood, but under general circumstances you need 

 not keep to what are called very close relations. The more 

 closely you keep to one blood, so the more vigilant you must be 

 to avoid the defects to which that strain has the strongest ten- 

 dency, and to shun the slightest symptom of disease." 



