Selection and Breeding 
101 
their qualities afield, with a family whose sole claim 
to merit lay in their good looks, but were worthless 
as far as field dogs are concerned. Violent crosses 
of this kind bring out remarkable results sometimes, 
but again undesirable characters are introduced that 
will require generations to eradicate. 
Line breeding is the mating of individuals from 
the same family; as for instance, uncles to nieces, 
cousins to cousins, aunts to nephews. Inbreeding is 
the breeding of animals hearing a closer relation¬ 
ship, and when brothers and sisters are interbred 
it is usually known as in-and-in breeding. 
To successfully produce stock within such con¬ 
fined lines the breeder must be a very careful student. 
This close breeding means the intensification of all 
characters. If certain qualities are in evidence in 
a family that one wishes to perpetuate, there is no 
quicker way than to breed within the lines of the 
family. Furthermore, there is no more rapid method 
for fixing type than by this close breeding. On the 
other hand, if weaknesses and undesirable charac¬ 
ters exist it must he borne in mind that these will 
be intensified in the same ratio as the good qualities, 
consequently the breeder must be absolutely sure of 
his individuals and also know the ancestry back for 
six or seven generations. In dog breeding it has 
been known that certain undesirable characters 
existing far back in the family tree cropped out in 
the seventh generation. Thus it might be well to 
reiterate, if there are constitutional weaknesses, 
there is no surer way to intensify the trouble than 
by close breeding. However, when all is said, line 
and in-breeding have done much for the beagle, but 
