IMPROVEMENT OF BREEDS. 109 
breeders with reference to their qualities as milkers has been 
the establishment of a permanent breed distinguished probably 
above all others as dairy cows. So the sheep breeders of 
England, having the production of mutton as their principal 
object, have produced the New Leicester, the South-Down, and 
the New Oxfordshire breeds, distinguished for form, size, flavor, 
and fattening qualities; while the Spanish and German breed- 
ers of Merinos, caring only for the wool, have given their breeds 
pre-eminently excellent fleeces, Breeding carefully for a few 
generations with a distinct purpose in view, will not fail to pro- 
duce astonishing and satisfactory results. 
“The alteration,” Sir John Seabright says, ‘‘ which may be 
made in any breed of animals by selection can hardly be con- 
ceived by those that have not paid some attention to the sub- 
ject.” , 
To breed in the most successful manner, the male and female 
should be taken when they are in the highest state of health, 
and when all the powers and attributes which are wished for 
and which it is designed to propagate are in the most complete 
order and state of perfection. 
II.—IN-AND-IN BREEDING. 
It is a well-established fact in human physiology that the in- 
termarriage of near relatives tends to both physical and mental 
degeneracy. Analogy would lead us to infer that the same 
results must follow close breeding among the lower animals; 
and facts, we think, prove conclusively that this is the case. 
Youatt, high authority on this subject, says: 
“Breeding in-and-in has many advantages to a certain ex- 
tent. It may be pursued until the excellent form and quality 
of the breed are developed and established. It was the source 
whence sprung the fine cattle and sheep of Bakewell, and the 
superior cattle of Colling; but disadvantages attend breeding 
‘in-and-in,’ and to it must be traced the speedy degeneracy, 
the absolute disappearance, of the new Leicester cattle, and in 
the hands of many an agriculturist, the impairment of consti- 
