118 FINE WOOL SITEEP HUSBANDRY. 
I do not recommend it per se, for who shall decide 
what perfection is? There comes a time, generally, 
Book fully proves. It is true that his Duchess family became impo- 
tent—ceased to breed; and this has been seized on as a proof of the 
danger of in-and-in breeding. But Mr Bates did not so regard it. 
He continued his previous course of in-and-in breeding with his other 
animals until his death, and with triumphant success. The editor of 
the American Short-~Horn Herd Book writes me: ‘‘ As to Mr. Bates’s 
cows being barren, that defect related to one family only, the Duch- 
esses, which was constitutional in the first of them, and probably ac- 
cidental.” To the point of their ceasing to breed, they apparently 
grew more perfect in every particular. Mr. Price, whose Herefords 
were the best in Wngland in his day, declared, in an article published 
in the British Farmers’ Magazine, that he had not gone beyond his 
own herd for a bull or a cow for forty years. 
It is not denied that Bakewell selected his original flock of long- 
wooled sheep from different flocks and families wherever he could ob- 
tain most perfection, but after that he bred in-and-in to the period of 
his death, and the Dishley sheep did not evince their subsequent fee- 
bleness of constitution when under his direction The same state- 
ment will apply to Jonas Webb, the great breeder of South Downs. 
The Stud Book is full of examples of celebrated horses produced by 
close in-and-in breeding. Favorite varieties of the pig have been pio- 
duced in the same way. There are families of rabbits, game, fowls, 
pigcons, etc, which have been bred in-and-in for a long course of gen- 
erations without deterioration of constitution and with a constant im- 
provement of the points regarded in such animals. 
But the misfortune of it is, that while in-and-in breeding is the 
readiest road to uniformity and perfection in the thoroughly compe- 
tent breeder’s hands, it isthe “edge tool” with which the incompetent 
one is sure to inflict swift destruction on his animals and his own in- 
terests. And there is another misfortune. Every man who owns 
animals fancies himself a competent breeder. He who has spent his 
life in other pursuits, reads a few books, picks up a few phrases, 
watches the proceedings of his shepherd a little, and then fancies he 
is a breeder! And he is not more mistaken in this supposition than is 
the unreading man, brought up on the farm, who has no knowledge 
on the subject outside of its traditions, and who, with the cant of “ er- 
perience” ever on his tongue, never tried a carefully and properly gon- 
ducted experiment in his life. Noman can be a really able breeder 
