28 PRINCIPLES OF SWINE BREEDING 



as fast or faster than you go right in the other case. If it is 

 true that in-breeding intensifies weakness of constitution, lack 

 of vigor, or too great fineness of bone, as we all believe, is it 

 not as reasonable and as certain that you can intensify strength 

 of constitution, heavy bone, or vigor, if you have those traits 

 well developed in the blood of the animals you are in-breeding 

 with ? The latter is certainly my belief and experience. . . . 

 I believe there is little or nothing to fear from kinship of 

 animals mated if they are suited to be mated together." 



Mr. Gentry states that he has not used a boar other than 

 his own breeding for twenty years, and describes the good 

 results from using the great boar Longfellow 16,835, and 

 Longfellow's sons and grandsons in his herd. One instance 

 is a boar he showed at the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893. 

 This boar weighed 660 pounds at 13 months and 6 days of 

 age, and possessed as much action, strength, vigor, and mas- 

 culine development as any boar he ever saw. The sire of 

 this boar was a son of Longfellow, the dam was a daughter of 

 Longfellow, and the sire of the dam was by the sire of Long- 

 fellow. This is an example of very close in-breeding producing 

 remarkably good results. 



Prominent swine breeders resort to in-breeding at times. A 

 very successful breeder told the writer that he did not care to 

 practise very close breeding as a rule, but he would not hesitate 

 to mate animals as closely related as cousins. Mr. Gentry 

 states that at first he practised in-breeding through necessity, 

 not being able to find boars oiitside his own herd which he 

 thought suitable for his use. No doubt many a breeder has 

 found himself in a similar position at times, and there is no 

 doubt that a certain amount of in-breeding would be preferable 

 to using unrelated males which were of inferior quality. 



The history of animal breeding shows that in-breeding has 



