12 
Breeding of Farm-Stock. 
sacrifice the main object in view. To meet any drawbacks 
attendant upon this maintenance of purity of breed, this stock 
should bear such a value, and bring such remunenitivc prices to 
the breeder, as to indemnify him against risk and losses, and 
open a fair prospect of profit. The deci'easc of size may, like 
every other point of character, be influenced by discretion in the 
management. An instance occurs to my mind of a celebrated 
breeder of sheep who was noted for maintaining size with great 
purity of descent. He made an invariable rule of purchasing his 
rams from a most carefully bred flock, and for twenty-two or 
twenty-three years — in fact, up to the time when he gave up 
business — he never introduced any other blood, but he was ex- 
ceedingly particular in selecting the largest rams, being satisfied 
that whether large or small all possessed an equally pure pedi- 
gree. His extended experience thoroughly convinced him that 
his system was correct. 
It has been judiciously remarked that it is much easier to 
bring any breed to the highest state of perfection than afterwards 
to maintain it in that position. The difficulties are undoubtedly 
great, but observation shows that they are not insurmountable. 
The relative advantages of breeding in and in and breeding in the 
line have scarcely been determined, but it is a subject worthy of 
consideration. Mr. Pawlett, a ram breeder of high repute, and 
the author of an Essay on Sheep,* says : — 
" Fnjni a long experience and close attention to tlie subject for move than 
twenty years, my mind seems more disposed to favour breedino- in and in, 
rather than changing from one flock to another. I do not recommend that 
animals closely allied should be ]iut togetlier generally, yet I have known a 
very good sheep, for instance, produced by putting the son of a ram called A 
to a daughter of A in cases where their points would suit each other, and I 
should never hesitate to do so." 
Mr. Robeit Smith, whose reputation as a ram breeder is equal 
to that of Mr. Pawlett, and who is the author of the Prize Essay 
on Sheep,! takes a very different view of this question, and 
says : — 
" With crossing and breeding in and in I have been lamentably disajjpointed, 
there being no dependance on the first, and no size to be procured in the latter. 
Even in ' breeding in the line ' much depends upon the union or knowledge of 
matching the male and female, particularly if selected from different families 
even of the same race, which have been for some time raised in other localities, 
and consequently influenced by climate, soil, situation, and treatment. When 
using rams of the same flock they sliould by no means be used nearer than a 
third remove in the same line of blood. I have, by repeated experiments, ex- 
perienced by the nearer affinities of blood the most decided disappointment, 
hnt have raised some first-rate animals by putting together the third removes 
when attention had been previously paid to the sort required." 
* ' Journal of the Eoyal Agricultural Society,' vol. vi. page 362. 
t Ibid., vol. viii. p. 25. 
