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OBSERVATIONS ON BREEDING. 
OBSERVATIONS ON BREEDING. 
By Omega.* 
Sir, — Not having the honour to belong to the veterinary 
profession, I do not regularly read your very able periodical, 
though my attention has lately been called by a friend to an 
article in the number for May last, on the subject of “Animal 
Physiology, and Breeding Farm Stock/’ in which the writer 
most strongly reprobates the practice of in-and-in breeding. 
It so happens that I am well-acquainted with Mr. Barford, of 
Northamptonshire, who is mentioned by name therein, and 
and having had some opportunities of seeing his manage- 
ment of his sheep, and his practice with regard to in-and-in 
breeding, I take the liberty of troubling you with a few lines 
in reply to Mr. Lance’s paper. 
That gentleman has adduced several instances, or rather 
related several anecdotes “ as the data on which he founds 
the argument, that consanguinity in blood amongst parents 
leads to degeneracy in the offspring.” But, to me they by 
no means satisfactorily prove his position. His long quota- 
tion from Mr. Lawrence’s lectures about the Angola sheep, 
makes rather for than against the practice of in-and-in breed- 
ing, as it clearly recognises the possibility of retaining 
varieties of animals by “preserving the race pure” by selecting 
for propagation the animals most conspicuous for size, or any 
other property we may fix on. In this way we may gain 
sheep valuable for the fleece or the carcass, large or small, 
with thick or thin legs; just such, in short, as we choose.” 
The other instances he mentions, as of Hallers, “ two noble 
females,” of Mr. Marsh’s, of Ryton, having produced an 
“ appalling malformation ” in the produce of a son with his 
mother; and others only prove, what I presume Mr. Lance 
w T ill at once admit, namely, the truth of the old adage, that 
“like begets like,” and that where any imperfections, moral 
or physical, exist in the parent, they will most likely re-appear 
in the offspring, whether bred in-and-in or not. As a set-off 
to one of Mr. Lance’s instances, I may mention that Bake- 
well found that good qualities w ere also transmissible, and in 
as great a degree as evil ones. And it is rather singular that 
he founded the observation in the results of an experiment 
(amongst others) exactly similar to that of Mr. Marsh, having 
found that a sow of his never bred so good pigs as when put 
* “ Omega,” has confided his name to us. — Ed. ‘ Vet * 
