IN SEASON. 215 



between the periods are longer, and may extend over a 

 year or more. 



All of which is conclusive evidence of the fact that the 

 various systems of living bodies form a complete system, all 

 parts of which are in such close sympathy that if one be- 

 comes disturbed the others are more or less disturbed also. 

 Consequently neither the reproductive, the digestive nor 

 other systems can be in high health and vigor unless its 

 associates are in the same happy condition. Now viewing 

 this lav/ from another direction, it is seen that unless the 

 general health is good the various systems and functions 

 of the body cannot be duly active, healthy and vigorous. 



Writers upon canine management have with singular 

 unanimity maintained that mating should never occur 

 before the second period, yet not a few breeders, whose 

 opinions on this and kindred subjects are invested with 

 the weight of intelligence and experience, are at variance 

 with them, and these believe that in some instances at 

 least it is justifiable at the first period. 



The usual argument against early mating and maternity 

 is, that it arrests the growth and puts much too severe a 

 strain upon the constitution yet immature and lacking in 

 strength, resistant and reactive powers, thereby prejudi- 

 cing the future of the victims, also the vitality of their 

 offspring. 



Those who take opposite grounds, while acknowledging 

 that early maternity arrests the growth, deny that it has 

 any ill effects, constitutional or otherwise, and maintain that 

 to induce it as early as possible is justifiable as a means of 

 correcting certain irregularities of form. They reason, 

 and rightly so in this instance, that the growth-modifying 

 influence of maternity is more pronounced upon some 

 parts of the structure than upon others, i.e. that " animals 

 grow up and then grow down," or in other words, that the 



