IMPORTANCE OF HEALTH IN BOTH SIRE AND DAM.

Health in both parents should be especially insisted upon, and in the bitch in particular there should be a sufficiently strong constitution, to enable her to sustain the growth of her puppies before birth, and to produce milk enough for them afterwards, though in this last particular she may of course be assisted by a foster-nurse.

BEST AGE TO BREED FROM.

The best age to breed from, in almost all breeds, is soon after the sire and dam have each reached maturity. When, however, the produce is desired to be very small, the older both animals are, the more likely this result is,-excepting in the last litter which the bitch has, for this being often composed of only one or two puppies, they are not smaller than the average, and sometimes even larger. All bitches should be allowed to reach full maturity before they are allowed to breed, and this period varies according to size, small dogs being adult at one year, whereas large ones are still in their puppyhood at that time, and take fully twice as long to develop their proportions. The mastiff is barely full grown at two years; large hounds at a year and a half; greyhounds at the same time; pointers and setters from

a year and a quarter to a year and a half; while terriers and small toy dogs reach maturity at a year old, or even earlier.

IN-AND-IN BREEDING.

The questions relating to in-and-in breeding and crossing are of the greatest importance, each plan being strongly advocated by some people and by others as strenuously opposed. Like many other practices essentially good, in-breeding has been grossly abused; owners of a good kennel having become bigoted to their own strain, and, from keeping to it exclusively, having at length reduced their dogs to a state of idiotcy and delicacy of constitution which has rendered them quite useless. Thus I have seen in the course of twenty years a most valuable breed of pointers, by a persistence in avoiding any cross, become so full of excitability that they were perpetually at "a false point," and backing one another at the same time without game near them ; and, what is worse, they could not be stirred from their position. This last was from a want of mental capacity, for it is by their reasoning powers that these dogs find out when they have made a mistake, and without a good knowledge-box the pointer and setter are for this reason quite useless. But the breed I allude to, when once they had become stiff, were like Chinese idols, and must absolutely be kicked or whipped up in order to make them start off beating again. Mr. A. Graham, who has had a long

experience in breeding greyhounds, and was at one time so successful as to obtain the name of "The Emperor of Coursers," has laid down the rule that "once in and twice out" is the proper extent to which breeding in the greyhound should be carried, and probably the same will apply to other breeds. Sometimes a sister may be put to a brother even, when there was no previous near relationship in their sire and dam; but though this has answered well two or three times, it is not to be generally recommended. A father may in preference be put to a daughter, because there is only half the same blood in them, when the sire and dam of the latter were not related; or an uncle to a niece ; but the best plan is to obtain a dog which has some considerable portion of the same blood as the bitch, but separated by one or two crosses; that is to say, to put two animals together whose grandfathers or great-grandfathers were brothers, but whose mothers and grandmothers were no relation to each other. This relationship will do equally well on the dam's side, and the grandmother may be sister to the grandsire, quite as well as having the two grandsires brothers. The practice of breeding-in to this extent has been extensively adopted of late years, and has answered well with the greyhound, in which breed, as used for public coursing, the names of "Harriet Wilson," "Hourglass," "Screw," "Sparrowhawk," "Vraye Foy," "Motley," "Miss Hannah," and "Rival" speak volumes in its approbation, all being in-bred and all wonderfully successful. The last-named bitch is a remarkable instance, being by a half-brother out of a half-sister, and yet continuing honest up to her sixth

season, when she broke a toe in running the last course but one in a large stake at Ashdown. In her case too the blood of the dam was somewhat notorious for a tendency to run cunning; and indeed the same might be said of nearly all the strains of which she was composed; nevertheless, throughout her career she was entirely free from this vice, and left off without a stain. She has, however, unfortunately refused to breed; but, as I have never known this peculiarity confined to in-bred bitches, I do not allege the fact as arising from her close in-breeding. Thus I have shown that in practice in-and-in breeding, within certain bounds, is not only not prejudicial, but absolutely advantageous, inasmuch as it does not injure the nervous temperament and mental qualities of the produce; and that the body does not suffer is a well-known fact, easily capable of proof by examining the external forms of the dogs so bred. Theoretically, also, it ought to answer, because we find in nature gregarious wild animals resorting to in-breeding in all cases, the stag adding his daughters to his harem as long as he has strength enough to beat off his younger rivals. In the same way the bull and the stallion fight for supremacy, till at length from age or accident they are beaten off, and a younger and more vigorous animal masters them and their female attendants. Yet this seems Nature's mode of insuring a superior stock, and preventing the degeneration which we see take place among human beings, when a feeble pair take upon themselves the task of producing a family. It would appear that man is an exception to the general rule, for there is a special revelation prohibiting intermarriages, while we find them constantly going on among brutes,

and especially, as above remarked, among gregarious animals. Hence it should not lead us to reason by analogy from one to the other, nor because we find that first cousins among our own race are apt to produce defective children, bodily and mentally, should we conclude that the same evil results will occur when we breed from dogs or horses having the same degree of relationship to their mates. At the same time, when all that can be desired is obtainable without in-breeding, I should be inclined to avoid it; always taking care to resort to it, when it is desired to recover a particular strain, which is becoming merged in some other predominant blood. Then by obtaining an animal bred as purely as possible to the desired strain, and putting him or her to your own, it may be expected that the produce will "go back" to this particular ancestry, and will resemble them more than any other.

BEST TIME OF YEAR.

The best time of the year for breeding dogs is from April to September, inasmuch as in the cold of winter the puppies are apt to become chilled, whereby their growth is stopped, and some disease very often developed. Among public greyhounds there is a particular reason for selecting an earlier period of the year, because as their age is reckoned from the 1st of January, and as they are wanted to run as saplings or puppies, which are defined