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84 AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
OBSERVATIONS ON IN-AND-IN BREEDING. 
Not having the honor to belong to the 
veterinary profession, I do not regularly read 
your very able periodical, though my atten¬ 
tion has lately been called by a friend to an 
article in the number for May last, on the sub¬ 
ject 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 Northamp¬ 
tonshire, who is mentioned byname therein, 
and having had some opportunities of seeing 
his management of his sheep, and his prac¬ 
tice with regard to in-and-in breeding, I take 
the liberty of troubling you with a few lines 
m reply to Mr. Lance’s paper. 
That gentleman has adduced several in¬ 
stances, or rather related several anecdotes, 
1 as the data on which he founds the argu¬ 
ment, that consanguinity in blood among 
parents leads to degeneracy in the offspring.” 
But, to me, they by no means satisfactorily 
prove his position. His long quotation from 
Mr. Lawrence’s lectures about the Angola 
sheep, makes rather for than against the 
practice of in-and-in breeding, as it clearly 
recognizes the possibility of retaining varie¬ 
ties of animals by “ preserving the race pure,'' 
by selecting for propagat ion 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 in- 
,lances he mentions, as of Hallers, “ two no¬ 
ble females,” of Mr. Marsh’s of Ryton, hav- 
ingprodueed an “ appalling malformation ? ’ in 
he produce of a son with his mother; and 
others only prove, what I presume Mr. Lance 
will 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 aset-oft' to one of Mr. Lance’s instances, 
I may mention that Bakewell found that good 
qualities were 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 to her own son. And allow 
neto ask Mr. Lance whether “the deformi¬ 
ties of mind and body,” which, according to 
Mr. Lawrence, spring up so plentifully in our 
large cities, cannot be amply accounted for 
by the intemperate habits, the vicious indul- 
gencies, the vitiated atmosphere, the unheal¬ 
thy occupations, the undrained and unventila¬ 
ted habitations in which so many of our 
urban population live and have their being, 
without having recourse to“ the want of se¬ 
lections and exclusions ” to which he has al¬ 
luded. For it must be borne in mind that, in 
the agricultural districts, the same “ want of 
selections and exclusions ” exists as in the 
cities, without, as Mr. Lance must admit, any- 
hing like the amount of mental and bodily 
deformity, which “ degrades the race ” in the 
towns. And, supposing, for the sake of ar¬ 
gument, that the state of many of the royal 
houses in Europe be such as Mr. Lawrence 
implies, may it not be possible that many gen¬ 
erations of luxurious indulgence and unre¬ 
strained passions, which, perhaps, are insep¬ 
arable from their exalted position, may not, 
by their continued, though gradual effect on 
the constitution, sufficiently account for it, 
without attributing it wholly to the fact of 
their being restricted to some ten or twenty 
families in the choice of husbands or wives. 
But to return to sheep-breeding. 
1 gather, from what Mr. Lance implies, 
rather than from what he says, that he 
imagines Mr. Barford allows the most pro¬ 
miscuous and indiscriminate intercourse 
among his flock. There cannot be a greater 
mistake. The most continual vigilance 
is exercised to prevent the propagation of any 
defect, should any appear, and, to use Mr. 
Lance’s own words, “ it is only the best that 
are allowed to continue the race.” In this I 
presume Mr. Barford only follows the exam¬ 
ple of every other breeder, and not to do so, 
would at once stamp a man with the most 
ridiculous imbecility. 
If the cousins, of whom Mr. Lance has 
spoken, of the white breed of fowls in Hamp¬ 
shire, if Mr. Marsh’s hogs, if the “silly” 
sheep in Wiltshire, in fact, if the subjects of 
any of the in-breeding experiments he men¬ 
tions, had any “ deficiency of nervous ener¬ 
gy,” and “ weakness of nerve or malforma¬ 
tion,” in short, any defect whatever, it is 
evident to the narrowest mind, that the near¬ 
er the affinities, and the longer they are bred 
so, the more decided will those defects be¬ 
come. But it must be absurd to attribute 
them to the bare fact of in-and-in breeding. 
Mr. Lance must prove that all cRoss-bred 
animals are free from all defects, before he 
can say that. In fact, I should regard fail¬ 
ure in in-and-in breeding experiments, as the 
most irrefragible evidence of defect in the 
parent or parents, and nothing more. I often 
think that it must be to misapprehension 
on this point that much of the unmitigated 
hostility to in-and-in breeding is to be attri¬ 
buted. People, by some means or other, get 
hold of the idea that the advocates of the sys¬ 
tem mean universal and indiscriminat e in-and- 
in breeding, than which nothing can be more 
absurd. 
But let us see where Mr. Lance’s favorite 
system will lead him when carried into prac¬ 
tice. As the end and aim of all crossing is 
of course improvement, all breeders may 
hope to (nay, if the theory be correct, they 
must, at some period or other), reach a point, 
beyond which there is no improvement to be 
made, by crossing; that is, they will produce 
a perfect animal, or, at least, one more per¬ 
fect than anybody's else. Now, sir, allow 
me to propound this question, to, Mr., Lance. 
When a man has arrived at this point— 
when he has exhausted every source of im¬ 
provement which the kingdom, nay, which 
the world affords—what is he to do ? It is 
evident he must adopt one or the other of the 
following courses : Either he must feed off 
and consign to the butcher both his males 
and females, without any more ado; or he 
may allow them to live to an unprofitable 
maturity, and a useless old age, and die at 
last a natural death ; or, he may call in Mr. 
Stafford, and disperse to the four quarters of 
the globe the fruits of perhaps a life-time of 
care, trouble and anxiety, beside enormous 
expense, and begin again denovo; or, he may 
knowingly, and with his eyes open, by cross¬ 
ing them with animals inferior to themselves, 
refrograde, step by step, to the mediocrity 
and inferiority with which he set out in the 
first instance ; or, his last resource, he may, 
by in-and-in breeding, attempt to propagate 
them perfected as they are, and thus retain 
for his country and himself the benefits which 
such a race of animals must necessarily con¬ 
fer. But such is the amount of obstinate 
prejudice now entertained against this sys¬ 
tem, that we might expect to see many gentle¬ 
men, perhaps Mr. Lance himself, adopt any 
of the above sources rather than the last. 
This is a supposititious case, but substan¬ 
tially it may be said to have occurred in the 
instance of Mr. Barford’s flock, as the follow¬ 
ing rough sketch of its history will show. 
About the year 1786, the late Mr. V. Bar¬ 
ford commenced sheep-breeding. He hired 
rams of Mr. Robinson, of Wellingborough, 
who was a disciple of Bakewell, of Dishley, 
and bred from his stock. Mr. Barford con¬ 
tinued to do so until about the year 1810, 
when the present Mr. Barford, considering 
his own sheep as good as Mr. Robinson’s and 
not being able to find any that he thought 
calculated to improve them, was really placed 
in something like the dilemma which I have 
above mentioned. However, in-and-in breed¬ 
ing had no imaginary terrors for him, and 
therefore he boldly adopted the last of the 
courses which I have enumerated ; so that, 
by necessity, even if he had not from choice, 
he must have become an in-and-in breeder. 
I will not take upon myself to say that he 
has succeeded, but I do ask any gentleman 
who is skeptical of the possiblity of the thing 
to visit him, and inspect a flock of which 
every individual sheep has a pedigree that 
can be traced back for upwards of forty years 
without a cross ! 
With such a fact as this before me, Mr. 
Editor, and with the still more significant 
one that the Jews have bred from the closest 
affinities from the very time of their father 
Abraham, without any deficiency of nervous 
energy, or any physical or moral degeneracy, 
I think I may be justified in declaring my 
firm opinion, that the explanation of the nu¬ 
merous and palpable defects in man and ani¬ 
mals, in modern times, must be sought in 
other reasons than the system of breeding 
Mr. Lance so strongly objects to. 
London Veterinarian.] OMEGA. 
COLUMBARY. 
THE ALMOND AND SHORT-FACED TUMBLERS. 
It is with considerable caution that I ap¬ 
proach these peculiar pets of the fancy, for, 
as most gentlemen have some point in this 
hobby which they consider paramount, it is 
impossible to enter into a full description of 
these beautiful little pigeons in the small 
compass of this paragraph. I shall, there¬ 
fore, make a few general remarks on the 
points, properties, and management of these 
birds, and recommend those who desire a 
fuller description, to peruse Mr. J. M. 
Eaton’s “ Treatise on the Almond Tumbler.” 
The Almond Tumblers were obtained by 
careful breeding, selecting, and crossing 
colors from the commoner kind of Tumblers, 
and after a long series of years, by drafting 
and breeding in-and-in, as much as it was 
prudent, have they been brought to the state 
of perfection in which they are now to be 
seen. I am inclined to think the name of 
“ Almond” originated in their ground-color 
being formerly" that of the well-known 
almond (nut); though they are now bred 
of a much brighter color. 
The color of the almond Tumbler is a mix¬ 
ture of yellow, red, black and white, well 
broken and intermixed; but short-faced 
Tumblers are of various colors and markings, 
as black, white, yellow, red, kite, and dun, 
silver or blue, either whole colored, mottled 
with white, bald-headed, bearded, ormagpied. 
Their points of excellence may be enu¬ 
merated under the five following properties 
of head, beak, eye, shape, and feather: 
The head must be round, broad, and high, 
rising abrubtly from the beak ; and the fuller 
and more projecting the forehead, the more 
it is valued. The beak should be short, 
small, straight, and tapering, measuring, 
from the eye to the end of the quick of the 
beak, from five-eights to three-quarters of an 
inch in length—the shorter the better; nor 
must the nostrils be large, but only slightly" 
developed. 
How much better would it be if all pigeon 
fanciers would adopt this standard of mea¬ 
suring to the end of the quick; then there 
would be no inducemeat. to pare the Tum¬ 
bler’s beaks, nor yet to coax the bill of the 
Carrier, or the toe-nail of a Pouter, to an 
ugly or unnatural development of horn; 
length or shortness are respectively consid- 
