The foregoing shows the vast importance of pedigree, and on both sides this should be studied, and the prevailing family characteristics carefully considered. The kennel chronicles, calendars, stud books, and systems of registration, public and private, now accessible, are of the greatest help to the breeder, and will become more so year by year, although the best of them are far from being so useful as they might be made. For instance, if in the registration of puppies the date of service, relative to the period of oestrum, were carefully given, we should soon have data on which to determine the disputed point as to whether the time of service influences the sex of the progeny.

I presume readers to be acquainted with the theory held by many observant breeders, that if the bitch is served at the early period of her heat the progeny will be mostly bitches, and, on the contrary, if near the end of the cestrum, the majority of the puppies will be dogs. No one person's experience, however extensive, can be taken to settle this question, which is of very great practical importance, not only in respect to dogs but other stock.

If, however, the Kennel Club were to adopt a system of careful registration, they would have in a few years an accumulation of facts from which deductions could be safely made; and the same means might be used to elucidate points which, if at present they can be called facts, are at least doubtful and obscure.

In-and-in Breeding. - This is a phase of the subject which has given rise to much discussion, opinions in favour of and against the practice being pretty equally divided.

From my own observation and lessons gathered from the experience of others, I am of opinion that close consanguineous breeding is the most powerful means we have to determine character and establish type; but, if continued without a resort to the renovating influence of blood from a removed, although, it may be, a collateral line, the result will be loss of stamina and the production of a too nervous temperament.

In-and-in breeding, in its strictest sense, is, of course, mating dogs from the same sire and dam, and continuing that course. Sir John Sebright, a high authority on such matters, carried out a series of experiments in this direction with the result that his dogs became weak, small, and weedy; and other experimentalists agree with him. In-and-in breeding is not, however, to be entirely neglected, for, as already observed, when it is required to fix and determine a desirable mental characteristic or physical trait possessed in common by brother and sister of the same litter, to breed them together is the most certain way to ensure its perpetuation; and in this way only, I believe, can type be established. And, to keep up the physique of the breed without destroying its distinctive features, breeding in the line - that is, from animals of collateral descent - should be resorted to, and not from dogs of entirely different blood.

Breeding for Colour - Breeding for Size - or with any other such specific object, must be undertaken on established physiological laws, and fully taking into account that there are always complex influences at work, all of which have to be considered and allowed for; that like breeds like is true only in a limited sense, for inherited characteristics on both sides, even such as are latent in the individual, assert their influence and reappear. On this subject there is a pamphlet by Mr. W. B. Tegetmeier and Mr. W. W. Boulton, M.R.C.S., called "Breeding for Colour, and the Physiology of Breeding," which is well worth the careful perusal of every breeder. Both, of these gentlemen are well known as scientists and most successful practical breeders of various domestic animals, and both have succeeded in establishing new varieties. Mr. Boulton's black spaniels possessed such a distinctive family character that they could be recognised at a glance. As a result of Mr. Boulton's great experience, he has come to a conclusion of much importance, namely, "that the sire influences the progeny principally in colour and outer contour, and the dam in constitution and all vital characteristics and peculiarities of temperament, instinct, and family or hereditary stamp, quality, or feature." Whether that view receive complete endorsement from other breeders or not, no one of any practical experience will undervalue the importance of breeding only, or with rare exceptions, from pure bred dams.

It would be impossible to establish a kennel of even character and high quality from brood bitches of different and of mixed blood.