BREEDING POINTERS, &C. 61 



produced ; scrofulous diseases are the certain result ; and hence 

 scrofula is less frequent in large towns ; but is uniformly found 

 to prevail in all secluded villages, where the continued inter- 

 course of the same families has existed for a few generations. 



If, therefore, the object of the sportsman be to procure and 

 maintain a good breed of pointers or setters, let him have re- 

 course to other breeds of pointers or setters of undisputed merit, 

 if from a distant part the better perhaps ; but if his neighbour's 

 dogs stand in no degree of affinity, he need not be at the trouble 

 of seeking for greater strangers. 



The foregoing remarks are not exclusively applicable to ani- 

 mated nature, but may be very justly extended to the vegetable 

 world : hence the farmer never sows corn on the land where it 

 was produced ; and hence seed potatoes grown in Scotland are 

 imported into Lancashire, where this useful vegetable attains the 

 utmost possible perfection. 



The best modes of crossing have been already pointed out 

 under the articles setter and pointer in a great degree ; but I will 

 take the liberty further to observe, in addition to the remarks 

 made in the last paragraph, that a pointer from Spain, Portugal, 

 or France, crossed with a deep-flewed hound (I believe the true 

 talbot is no longer to be found in Great Britain or Ireland) will 

 produce excellent dogs ; or they may be crossed with a pointer 

 already naturalized as it were in this country, and the result an- 

 ticipated with confidence. But there cannot be a worse cross 

 than the pointer and setter see the article Pointer >, page 18. 



If the opinion be correct, that the setter was originally pro- 

 duced by the conjunction of the talbot or blood-hound and the 

 springer (and I have no objection to believe it), for want of the 

 former a reproduction of this sort seems out of the question, 

 unless recourse be had to Denmark or Norway, where I am told 

 the talbot is still to be found. The blood-hound of Cuba and 

 the West Indies is a very different animal, and no way calcu- 



