44 THE BREEDING PROBLEM. 



ferson, often talked about in private, that the thrones of Europe were filled 

 with imbeciles, the results of consanguineous marriages. I'he rule of the 

 Church of England to-day on this topic is more strict than has been that of 

 some decayed royal houses. 



It is within the observation of every breeder that his stock deterio- 

 rates in quality with great rapidity if he breeds from inferior animals- 

 or those low in point of quality. 



Selections, to maintain standards of excellence, must at all times be 

 from the best. But even with this precaution, respect must also be 

 had to the degree of consanguinity that exists between the animals 

 interbred. It is known that some classes of animals retrograde from 

 in-breeding more rapidly than others — as, for example, the Dorking 

 fowls, most likely from the fact that not a large number of them exist,, 

 and they have been bred a long time, and hence they are of neces- 

 sity more closely related than if they had only recently been origi- 

 nated from diverse materials. 



The high or low quality of the stock bred from also affects the 

 question, as in low-bred stock the impurities of blood form so large a. 

 ratio of the whole that a very short period of interbreeding suffices to 

 indelibly fix the marks of decay, while superiority of blood, or that 

 which possesses in itself great vigor and healthfulness, enables a stock 

 to endure much and close in-breeding before the evidences of decline 

 are apparent. It is well understood that in-breeding to a close degree 

 has been practiced among the breeders of Short-horns in this country 

 and in England — the result of which has been to estabHsh a standard 

 of great excellence as to certain valuable points, but at the expense 

 of a sacrifice of the constitutional vigor of the race. It is well known 

 that barrenness, both in males and females, has become so common as- 

 to amount almost to a characteristic; they are no longer a family 

 remarkable for longevity, or the size of the carcass, that once distin- 

 guished members of the family not bred up to the most fashionable 

 standards. 



Our thoroughbred horses are all bred from the original blood of 

 the desert, but having a large number of animals to breed from, a 

 large range of families not closely akin, and all of a high standard of 

 blood, the skillful breeders of England and America have been able 

 to improve the standards of excellence so far that the race-horse has 

 grown from an animal fourteen and a half hands high to one sixteen 

 and a half hands, and of great power and perfection. Probably no 

 family of animals ever produced surj^assed in blood purity and inherent 



