120 BBEEDING IN-AND-IN. 



otherB, and its stock rams were selected from, its own number. 

 Consequently fathers and daughters, and brothers and sisters 

 must have constantly bred with each other. Mr. Chamber- 

 lain's Silesians have not received any cross, or any fresh blood 

 from either of the original families, within half a century ; 

 yet they are 50 per cent, larger than the sheep they originated 

 from and are entirely healthy. Mr. Hammond's Infantados 

 present a stiU stronger case. They were bred in-and-in 

 by Col. Humphreys up to the period of Mr. Atwood's 

 purchase ; Mr. Atwood bred his entire flock from one ewe, 

 and never used any but pure Humphreys rams; Mr. Ham- 

 mond has preserved the same blood entirely intact — and 

 thus, after being drawn beyond all doubt from an unnuxed 

 Spanish Cabana, they have been bred in-and-in, in the 

 United States, for upwards of sixty years. Fortunately Mr. 

 Hammond has preserved some of his leading individual 

 pedigrees, and I will give one of these as a most forcible 

 illustration of the subject under examination. For that 

 purpose I win select the pedigree of Gold-Drop, one of his 

 present stock rams. It includes that of Sweepstakes — the 

 ram figured in the frontispiece — and has the advantage of 

 exhibiting the course of breeding for two . generations later. 

 The pedigree is given on next page. 



