198 THE ANG011A GOAT. 
approaches nearer and nearer, yet, though produced 
to infinity never touches, so does the stain of base 
blood remain to all eternity, diminishing with every 
cross of the pure breed, yet never wholly extin- 
guished. 
Dr. Randall, a distinguished American sheep-breeder, 
who has written several valuable works on the Merino, 
says, that "to suppose the produce of the fourth or of 
the twentieth cross will equal pure and properly bred 
Merinos, is what no breeder of ripe experience ever 
dreamed of. Base blood runs out rapidly by arith- 
metical calculations ; but practically it stays in, and is 
ever and anon cropping out by exhibiting the old base 
characteristics in a way that sets all calculation at 
defiance." 
It is evident that if a pure breed has been once 
obtained, the greatest care should be taken to prevent 
any deterioration by crossing with an inferior race. 
Grade flocks may be allowable for a time, till a suffi- 
cient number of the pure blood can be obtained to 
replace them, but the males used to such flocks should 
always be of pure blood. In a stud flock, absolute 
purity should be the sine qua non, and any cross with 
an alien race would be the height of folly, and de- 
struction to the purity of the breed would naturally 
ensue. I would not here condemn any well considered 
and properly conducted experiment made with a fixed 
and definite object in view, such as that made by Lord 
Western, a celebrated English breeder, with the view of 
obtaining a sheep intermediate between the Merino and 
the large English breeds. His attempt to put a Merino 
fleece on a Leicester carcase, was not however success- 
ful. In making an experiment of this kind, another 
