70 LEWIS'S AMERICAN SPORTSMAtf. 



specially desirable qualities, and consequently should not be utterly 

 discarded on account of their defects, but should be mated with 

 their opposites in physical structure, thus producing progeny with 

 the good and without the bad qualities of the parent. 



In this connection it is proper to call attention to the fact that 

 an individual may be a marked exception to his or her line, and in 

 this case cannot be depended on to produce his or her own char- 

 acteristics in any large degree, as the influence of the line will 

 assert itself in a majority of that portion of the progeny influenced 

 by the particular parent. The degree of influence which one 

 parent will exert cannot be predetermined, and cases have been 

 known where an individual has displayed a marked faculty for 

 impressing his or her own likeness, or line attributes, upon a very 

 large percentage of offspring, even when extensively bred from 

 and mated with individuals of different types. A breeder should 

 therefore not only inquire into the characteristics of the individual, 

 but also into those of the ancestors, that the combined influence 

 may be predetermined as far as possible. 



Minor physical defects should be corrected in the same way as 

 the important ones we have referred to, and so should those of 

 character or field quality, but it must be borne in mind that these 

 defects will naturally be reproduced in a portion of the descendants, 

 though corrected in others, also that until mature form and full 

 development are reached the degree in which the defects have been 

 reproduced will not be fully apparent, so that the results of a union 

 which in early life promises to be highly satisfactory, may later 

 prove disappointing. The only safety, therefore, lies in the mating 

 of individuals as nearly perfect as possible, and inheriting this 

 perfection from a line of similarly perfect ancestors. When this 

 perfection exists on both sides there cannot be unfitness on the 

 part of one for the other, and the variation in progeny will be 

 avoided. 



