BREEDING AND SELECTION 29 



played an important part in the improvement of practically 

 all breeds of live stock. It concentrates the blood and makes 

 animals more prepotent, that is to say, causes them to trans- 

 mit their own qualities to their progeny with great certainty. 

 In this respect, therefore, in-breeding is beneficial ; but it must 

 not be forgotten that it will fix bad qualities as well as good 

 ones. Mr. Gentry strikes the keynote when he says : " I be- 

 lieve there is little or nothing to fear from kinship of animals 

 mated if they are suited to bo mated together." But how 

 many men are capable of discerning whether the animals are 

 suited to one another or not? Mr. Gentry states that if the 

 animals are bad, a person will go wrong very fast by practising 

 in-breeding. The chances are that more than ninety-nine per 

 cent of the men breeding swine to-day could not say with 

 any degree of certainty whether a given pair of animals were 

 suited to be mated together, and since bad results are likely to 

 follow an error in judgment, it seems safe to assume that 

 in-breeding is something to be practised by the few only. 



It requires a master of the art of breeding to practise in- 

 breeding with success, and in the history of stock breeding we 

 read of some of the greatest breeders the world has known 

 who were compelled to resort to the introduction of fresh blood 

 after persistently following in-breeding for a considerable time. 



Avoid In-breeding. It will be safer, therefore, for the 

 average breeder to avoid in-breeding, and to leave the practice 

 in the hands of those who are exceptionally 'skilful in the art 

 of breeding. If a breeder happened to secure a boar of ex- 

 ceptional excellence as a stock getter, he might find it to his 

 advantage to do a certain amount of close breeding, but boars 

 of this description are not numerous, and it is seldom that we 

 are fortunate enough to secure one. Mr. Gentry secured such 

 a boar in Longfellow, and recognized the boar's merit, but 



