tural Journal, 1858) says: "Where such in-and-in breeding in families has been continued for many generations without any admixture of other blood, not even of the same race, some individuals, even of the same litter, will always be of greater, others of less value for use and breeding; nay, by an exclusive in-and-in breeding in families, if proper attention is not paid to a deviation from the general direct stream of blood, if no lateral branches, having for some time been bred in another direction, are taken in, it will often happen that the relative value of full sisters and brothers is the more unequal, and the hereditary transmission of their qualities the more insecure, the more the blood of the family has been preserved and concen trated. Ed. Bawly, in an article "On the breeding of cattle," (Wilda's Central Journal, 1858, vol. II.,) speaks as follows: "As to in-and-in-breeding among near relations, it undoubtedly is safer in regard to the production, but if contined for more than one or two generations it becomes objectionable, for although some greater perfection of form may be attained, yet the size will decrease and the constitution become debilitated. John Sebright instituted experiments with different animals, and always found the disadvantages above mentioned recurring. H. W. Von Pabst, in his "Instruction in the Breeding of Cattle," says: "Although we admit that animals faultless in every respect are often not found at all in the smaller tribes, and that the cause for hereditary defects are often overlooked in the beginning, yet there are many reasons why great precaution should be exercised in pairing near blood relations, especially in its repetition, and it should be avoided altogether, if this can be done without frustrating the purpose of breeding. I must acknowledge that, in order to produce animals that would give the largest possible quantity of milk, I have repeatedly paired near blood relations, and, in doing so, have not paid due attention to the somewhat neat frame of bones and narrow chest of the animals paired together; the result was that I soon abtained productions of such a debilitated constitution as to fully convince me of the disadvantages of breeding among relations. In order to show the analagous effects of sexual connections also between members of the human family of too near kin; two statements are presented. In Hasses' paper "On Suicides," it is stated: Among seventeen families whose parents were cousins to each other, there was one with five idiotic children, five with four each, three with three each, two with two each, and six with one each. These seventeen families had altogether ninety-five children, of whom forty-four were idiotic, twelve scrofulous and imbecile; in the whole, fifty-eight of a weak constitution and poor health. The French physician, Dr. Devay, says that among one hundred and twenty one marriages between blood relations of his acquaintance, no less than twenty-two were wholly barren; in seventeen cases the children had more than ten fingers, in two the small finger was lacking, in five others there were club feet, and in all the rest of three cases the state of health in these children was only tolerably good. The children of near blood relations are often deaf and dumb, they generally teeth later, and the development of their mind and body is retarded. The nearer the parents are related together the worse are the consequences. The cause of the degeneration of the offspring of animals by the pairing of near blood relations may be explained in the following way. Although the exterior of an animal may appear to be perfect, yet it may have a hidden defect or some disease in its organization. Frequently the members of a family show the same defects of forms which are hereditary, but less apparent in the individual. By pairing such blood relations the abnormity, although insignificant in the individual is thus doubled, obtains a double development in the offspring, and in this way the predisposition to disease or the disease itself originates. By breeding within families there is less probability that the imbecility of the one animal will be counterbalanced and equalized through the power or vigor of the other, or the excess on the one part through the deficiency on the other, than by pairing animals not related. IN-AND-IN BREEDING AND THOROUGH BREEDING. Thorough breeding, in the strict signification of the term, signifies breeding among more distant relations, while in-and-in breeding among families means the pairing of near blood relations. Thorough breeding pairs animals of a larger family or a breed, excluding any admixture of kindred breeds; as for instance the breeding together of the several families of the Short-horns. The German breeders make three systems of breeding, viz: In breeding, in-and-in breeding, and pure breeding-their pure breeding is equivalent to our thorough breeding, as will be seen by the following paragraph: "Pure breeding pairs the animal belonging to one tribe, excluding none of the several kinds of the same. This method of breeding, therefore, aims at preserving the purity of the tribe. Instance: the breeding between Montavon, Cloister Valley and Walser Valley cattle, the two latter being breeds of the Montavon tribe." The object of in-and-in and thorough breeding is the unchanged preseryation of the properties of a breed or tribe of cattle which fully answer the purposes for which they are used. If the external influences-feeding, keeping, use, climate, &c., are adapted to the nature of the tribe, those two methods of breeding are the means of preserving the same in their principal type. In-and-in breeding, as well as thorough breeding, may yet attain to a higher degree in this respect. But in-and-in or thorough breeding suo ceeds not only in preserving the tribe or breed unchanged and pure, but it also effects gradually an improvement of the animals in respect to their usefulness for the one or the other purpose or even for all purposes, and also in respect to form-thus an improvement in the true sense of the word; and likewise an increase of volume to a certain degree. If only the finest and largest specimens of cattle, which answer most fully the purposes of the breeder in developing one or more useful qualities, are selected for breeding, and the inferior animals wholly excluded from breeding, and besides, if the feeding, keeping and use of the animals correspond exactly to those special purposes, the beauty, size, and usefulness of the tribe or breed may be improved almost ad infinitum. In this way any, even the most inferior tribe of cattle, may be improved, without introducing strange male animals, &c., and without incurring the danger of injuring the tribe more or less by the admixture of new blood. If the people have not ample means to invest in the breeding of cattle, and if the animals are bred, kept, and used according to correct principles, this method of breeding may be deemed preferable to the introduction of blood from other races, for the purpose of improving whole tribes of cattle. Yet, in the face of these facts, some have declared in-and in and thorough breeding objectionable, contending that it leads inevitably to a depravation of the tribes or breeds. But this objection is wholly unfounded, if this system of breeding is pursued rationally; and if irrationally, this objection does not apply to the system itself, but to the method in which it is executed. Of course, if breeding among near relations is carried on too long, or if defective animals are continually paired together, the offspring must lose in vigor, perfection of form and usefulness, and the tribes rapidly degenerate by in-and-in or thorough breeding, and therefore such erroneous proceedings should be discontinued. The views just advanced is fully corroborated by Pabst in the following communication: "As an instance of a long continued and very successful in-and-in breeding, I mention the fine tribe of the Gurten cattle, numbering at most twenty head, which for a long series of years has been established on the Royal stud farm of Kleinhohenheim, in which in-and-in breeding has been carried on at least during a period of forty years, and where the pairing of blood relatives was inevitable. This tribe is as powerful and useful to-day as when I first became acquainted with them, twenty-eight years ago; but faultless animals only were used for breeding." (Directions for the breeding of cattle. CROSSING. By crossing-amalgamation of blood or races-in the more limited (agricultural) sense of the term, we understand the pairing of animals of different races or tribes, e. g. of the Shorthorn and Devon races of cattle. But in common practice, pairing among the kindred breeds or tribes of one race is also considered a crossing. This view is not objectionable, either, since a commixture of two different kinds of blood takes place. The productions of the crossings mentioned are called bastards, (mongrels) according to the agricultural doctrine of breeding, but in the sense of natural history, a bastard originates only from the pairing of different classes and species of animals, and is generally unfruitful, as, e. g. the bastard between the ass and zebra; but the productions obtained by the common crossing, the pairing among races, tribes and breeds, are always fruitful. By crossing, the various properties of two or more races, tribes or breeds, may be combined and preserved in the productions originating from such a commixture of blood. In pairing animals of a badly built race with those of a well built one, the first productions, as to their structure, must be a medium one between the two races. The same is true in respect to the earlier or later development and the useful qualities of the animals. If all the conditions of a successful crossing are secured, it becomes the means of producing a larger size, a better form, and more useful qualities of establishing a new breed pretty surely, and sooner than it can be done by in-and-in or thorough breeding. But to cross successfully, the following points must be observed, otherwise success and final results will be problematical, or at least retarded: 1. The animals must not differ too much from each other, or be too heterogeneous in size and form, their anatomical proportions, or in color and qualities. If too large and small, too short and long, too high and low built animals are paired together, the productions are generally deformed, and if the color of the breeding animals is too different, an unpleasant combination of color will result, which will not assume a fixed type in the offspring, but always change. The old rules in cattle breeding, "Pair like to like," or "like paired with like produces like," hold good here to a certain extent, otherwise a crossing should never be undertaken. Now, as the many various races are very different as to form and color, so they are heterogeneous in their interior structure, which is not externally so apparent. Experience teaches that certain individual tribes, being not very heterogeneous in size and form, will not amalgamate easily or never suecessfully, so that their offspring will always more closely resemble the one or the other of the parent animals, and not stand, as to their forms and properties, between both. Families, kinds breeds and tribes of one race will generally commingle more readily than those of different races. Where crosses between breeds of cattle, of which successful crosses are not yet known, are intended to be made on a large scale, prudence demands to institute at first experimental crosses, lest money, time, feed and labor be wasted. 2. The male animals to be selected for crossing, if the breeder aims at definite characteristics of the race, must possess purity of race and constancy, or an extraordinary individual power of hereditary transmission; otherwise the results of this system of breeding will be of little value or uncertain. Animals descending from breeds or families not long established themselves, and not possessing a fixed type, will not always transmit their properties with certainty, but ancestral defects will often reappear. Bulls taken from the boundary line of a territory where a certain breed of cattle are spread, are not to be commended for crossing, because they do not possess the power of transmitting their properties with certainty, on account of their mixed blood and not fully established constancy. As to how long it will take cattle produced by crossing to obtain a fixed type and the perfect constancy in transmission of it, an annual meeting of the Agricultural Association of Scotland held at Inverness some years ago, gave the following interesting data: Harvey, of Tillygreig, said that in breeding Durham cattle, a case occurred to him where a bull-calf had been dropped in the eighth generation which, on account of its black and white color, could not be registered as a Shorthorn in the herd-book. Grant Duff, of Eden, one of the most prominent breeders in Scotland, stated that he produced a perfect hornless Angus bull by the sixth crossing of the hornless Angus cattle with Shorthorn bulls. A Mr. Horne, and several other rational breeders gave it as their opinion that a head of cattle with only one crossing in its pedigree, could never be acknowledged as a full blood animal; and while others did not venture stating their views as to when cattle crossed with Shorthorn bulls would possess so much of Shorthorn blood as to be considered fullblood Shorthorn cattle, all present agreed that purity of blood in the male animals used for crossing is the chief condition for a successful and proper crossing, and that since the first cross excells all the following ones in valuable qualities, a second crossing should be attempted in exceptional cases only. 3. The food for cattle to be formed into a new tribe, must not differ too much in quality and quantity from that given to the animals from among which the breeding animals were chosen; for otherwise the useful qualities aimed at and found in that tribe from among which the breeding bulls were selected, can not be fully developed. The same rule applies to the manner of keeping and using the animals. He who believes to be able to |