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At our Society's last annual meeting ( 1*30), the subject 

 for discussion alter dinner was the breeding and rearing of 

 sheep and cattle. It appears that the chief part of the 

 most celebrated flocks of pure-bred Leicester sheep, have 

 been bred without any introduction of blood from any 

 other flock. What may be called close breeding there- 

 fore, must have been a frequent practice ; but whether 

 what I suppose to be called breeding in and in, that is 

 putting the offspring to the parent, is a common practice, I 

 could not understand. From the numbers in a flock of 

 sheep, it cannot be a matter of necessity. The experienced 

 sheep-breeder who proposed the subject for discussion, and 

 was the principal speaker, gave his definition of crossing 

 the breeds of animals, in different terms from what I should. 

 Putting an ass to a mare, I should call crossing the species ; 

 a Hereford bull to a Durham cow, or a Southdown tup to a 

 Leicester ewe crossing breeds. Putting a tup, of one 

 pure and close-bred flock, to ewes, of another pure and 

 close-bred flock; or a bull, of either a pure- bred Durham 

 or Hereford herd of cattle, to cows of another pure-bred 

 herd ; this, I should call crossing of blood. Putting the 

 offspring to its parent, is w hat I conceive to be the origin 

 of the term breeding in and in. Some admit nothing to 

 be breeding in and in but putting an own or full brother 

 and sister together, because they say in all other cases 

 there is an admixture of fresh blood. It is probably 

 desirable to avoid breeding in and in, unless there is some 

 reason for so doing ; because, generally speaking, a defect 

 in the shape or quality of an animal, belongs not only to 

 the individual, but to the family to which it belongs, and 

 therefore it is probable that by breeding in and in, in the 

 same family, any such defect will be increased : but there 

 may be very good reasons for deviating from this general 

 rule. For instance : suppose a bull, B, which has some 

 remarkably fine fore quarters, is put to a cow, C (whose 

 fore quarters are defective, but whose hind quarters are 

 perfect), for the purpose of correcting the defect in her fore 

 quarters ; and the produce to be a heifer, A, which 

 preserves the perfection of hind quarters remarked in her 

 dam, and is better than her dam, in the fore quarters, but 

 still rather defective in that point, it would be better to put 



