THE HALF OF THE HERD— THE BUCK 109 



The methods of Hne- and inbreeding may be best 

 illustrated by example: suppose in founding a herd a 

 man were to use a buck, Hermann, and, among others, 

 an unrelated doe, Berne, repeating this mating four or 

 five successive years. He notes that of all his young 

 stock, the best are those from this Berne-Hermann com- 

 bination. In the meantime, he will have used other out- 

 bred bucks. He will have at hand Berne II and Her- 

 mann II from the original mating. He will have Berne 

 III and Ben from the mating of Berne II and an unre- 

 lated buck. He will have Hermann III and Herma 

 from Hermann II and an unrelated doe. Now, noting 

 the superiority of the Berne-Hermann offspring, he may 

 decide to try inbreeding, believing this superiority had 

 resulted from a specially happy combination of qualities 

 of those two animals. He will then try to fix that com- 

 hination by mating Berne and Hermann, Berne III and 

 Hermann III, Herma and Ben, Berne II and Hermann 

 III. If he is absolutely convinced of the superiority of 

 the Berne-Hermann combination, he may even have the 

 nerve to mate Berne II and Hermann II, full brother 

 and sister. 



If his judgment was right, he will strengthen and 

 establish in his herd the type represented by the Berne- 

 Hermann combination, and his herd will rapidly rise to 

 fame and affluence. If, however, there was some unsus- 



