624 PRACTICAL PROBLEMS 



He adds, 1 " This variety seems to have become specially adapted 

 to profit in every ^vay by self-fertilization^ although this process 

 was so injurious to the parent plants during the first four genera- 

 tions." Darwin's whole discussion of "highly self-fertile varie- 

 ties " 2 is exceedingly valuable, not only because the author seems 

 to consider the phenomena inexplicable, but more especially be- 

 cause it establishes the fact that the closest inbreeding is not 

 necessarily fatal. 



It should be noted, however, that these are exceptional in- 

 stances, constituting no argument for indiscriminate inbreeding, 

 but they do show that inbreeding is not necessarily headed 

 straight for disaster and with a full head of steam. 



The breeding business deals not with averages but with pos- 

 sibilities, and it is high time that the foolish horror of inbreed- 

 ing be dissipated. If breeders had been as careful in certain 

 other respects as they have been to avoid the slightest form of 

 inbreeding, our flocks and herds would have progressed farther 

 along the road of improvement. 



Experience in animal breeding. Any one who will take the 

 trouble to study the pedigrees of famous families in almost any 

 line of stock breeding will find that the foundation blood is 

 most intensely bred. Indeed, the practical breeder working with 

 material that is really of distinctive and peculiar merit comes 

 soon to the point at which close breeding is inevitable, and he 

 must face the issue sooner or later if he is to make any real use 

 of his valuable creations. To breed them out is but to dissipate 

 their excellence, and the only practical course is close breeding. 



Among cattle breeders this practice is too well known to 

 need more than a passing mention, but the following extracts 

 from personal letters recently received will show how it works 

 upon the highly organized horse and the quick-breeding, heavy- 

 fleshed swine. 



The veteran breeder of Arab horses, Randolph Huntington, 

 of Rochester, New York, writes as follows : 



With me close breeding has proved a sure test for purity, and my best, 

 most uniform results have been in breeding the dam to her son and to her 



1 Darwin, Cross and Self Fertilization, etc., p. 348. (Italics are mine.) 



2 Ibid. pp. 347-3S 2 - 



