THE SCIENCE OF BREEDING 97 



failure, lacking those great essentials to the character 

 of sporting dogs — courage, stoutness, and good con- 

 stitution — without which the most perfectly-formed 

 hounds, greyhounds, or pointers are little worth. 



The science (for it is a science) of breeding animals 

 successfully, whether in reference to cattle, horses, or 

 dogs, is comparatively little understood, and requires 

 much more study and attention than is often bestowed 

 upon it by agriculturists and sportsmen generally. 

 Although since the establishment of agricultural societies 

 farmers have been stimulated to greater exertions, and 

 a more strict inquiry into animal economy, still the 

 science and practical knowledge of producing bullocks, 

 sheep, or even pigs of first-rate quality, considering the 

 numbers now embarked in the enterprise, is confined to 

 a small number ; and on one point I am well assured, that 

 the handsomest herd of cattle, or the cleverest pack 

 of fox-hounds, if handed over to the management of an 

 unskilled person, would in a very few years degenerate 

 into an inferior class of animals. 



To breed successfully, a thorough knowledge of the 

 essential points of animal structure is absolutely necessary 

 to begin with, then the consideration how certain de- 

 ficiencies in one form may be supplied or counteracted by 

 the exuberance of the same in another ; exempli gratia : — 

 for the purpose of elucidation, let us take for our subject 

 a lengthy, roomy, though loosely made fox-hound bitch, 

 slack behind the shoulders, deficient in muscle in the 

 loins, and a little too high on the legs. The mate to be 

 selected must of course be short on the leg, particularly 

 good in the loins, with muscle strongly developed through 

 his whole frame, and with plenty of bone also. Now with 

 these requisites, it is very probable the dog may be a 



