CHAPTER IV

I want the breeder of animals who has this book in his hand to read most carefully the preceding chapter, because most of what I have written therein applies to animal breeding just as much as it does to bird breeding. The basic principles are the same whatever kind of livestock is being cultivated. It would be mere repetition to go over them all again. The only real difference between inbreeding with animals and birds (with the exception of poultry) as I have previously said, is that the animal breeder makes extensive use of stud males, and he, therefore, employs the foundation sire system to which I have referred at the conclusion of Chapter III much more extensively than does the bird breeder. Hence it may be said, loosely, that he is more of a line-breeder than an inbreeder.

Although I have evidence that some of the best horses, cattle, sheep, pigs and dogs have been bred from parents as closely related as father and daughter, I think it can be accepted that with the exception of the owners of the small animals-rabbits, cavies and mice-it is not usual to breed in so closely as do pigeon and budgerigar breeders.

Examination of the pedigrees of racehorses, show horses, pedigree cattle, sheep, pigs, goats and dogs discloses that most of the successful animals have been the outcome of consanguinity skillfully controlled and with stock of superlative merit used for breeding purposes. In the pedigrees of these animals it is noticeable that the name of the sire often appears several times, and that even when he has not been used, one of his sons (usually a proved good stock getter) has been employed. Always the aim has been to concentrate on the blood of that original male, and even improve it by the introduction of dams superior to him in a particular property or properties. It is when a son of a foundation sire displays the improvement to which I have referred that he is used instead of the father to carry on the line.

Selecting a stallion

To take a mare as an example, good as she may be she will have a fault of some kind. The object of the breeder is to retain (even improve) on her good qualities and eliminate the bad ones. Careful study is made of the appearance and pedigree of the stallions of the day, with a view to finding one that excels where the mare fails, and is likely to accentuate, not modify, her own good points. Her excellences may be characteristic of her family, and the wise breeder knows that the best way of fixing these in her foal is to mate her to a related stallion, so good that he is representative of all that is best in his family. Providing he has not a suspicion of the fault of the mare, then the fact that he is related to her makes him the more attractive as the father of her foal. But if he had the same fault, or faults, that she has, then the incidence of their being related would cause him to be quite the wrong mate for her.

The danger of fixing faults by incorrect inbreeding can be exemplified by an incident which occurred in my own village. It is also an example of how the inexperienced and unthoughtful can so easily go wrong, and in consequence condemn inbreeding for evermore.

We had a local cobbler who bred wire-haired fox terriers in a small way. He wanted to breed from a bitch which was quite good except that she was rather long in leg. One day as I was passing his shop he called me in.

'I've had the bitch mated,' he said, 'and I'm doing what you are always advising-inbreeding.'

'Are you?" I replied, 'and to which dog has she been?"

'To her father,' he answered, and then gave me the dog's name. I went on my way wondering.

Being interested I made inquiries about that dog, and I discovered that his only fault was length of leg. Every pup in the litter the cobbler's bitch bred was also too long in leg, which is what I expected they would be. My old friend was fixing long leg. This is a perfect example of incorrect inbreeding.

The Southburn sheep and cattle

With regard to the larger animals, I have never been a practical breeder of them, but I have been closely acquainted with some of the most successful owners of all time. For instance, I was an old friend of Sir William Prince-Smith, Bt, of Southburn House, near Driffield, East Yorkshire, who, when he resided in Keighley, bred English Owls and Oriental Frill pigeons. Commencing as a schoolboy he built up invincible studs in the two breeds named. He applied those breeding principles which I have described in Chapter III, just as I have with budgerigars and pigeons, and with, I think I can say without being immodest, satisfying success.

In due course Sir William sold his Owls and Lady Prince-Smith's Frills, disposed of his business interests, and took over his late father's estate at Southburn, including the herd of pedigree Aberdeen-Angus cattle and the flock of Suffolk sheep.

He had of ten told me that when he had control of these animals he would treat them as nucleus studs, and establish definite strains by inbreeding as he had done with pigeons, with those variations demanded because of the stud male system operating in cattle and sheep as distinct from the 'pair' system in pigeons.

Much against the wishes of his father's old head shepherd and head herdsman, who no doubt thought the young master was a misguided eccentric, he carried out his intention. His efforts have been completely successful. Today the cattle and Suffolk and Leicester sheep at Southburn House, and at the farms of Haywold, Painslack and Fieldhouse, are famous.

An example of the success achieved was the winning of the supreme championship at the Royal Show at Windsor in 1954 in both Suffolks and Leicesters. In each case, as will be noted from the pedigrees of the rams given in this chapter, they were the result of a nephew and aunt mating.

I remember an occasion when my wife and I paid one of our periodic visits to Southbum. With pedigrees on the table between us, Sir William told me how it had all been done, and this is his story:

'The general breeding policy adopted with the Aberdeen-Angus cattle and the Suffolk and Leicester sheep is the same, namely careful line-breeding to animals which have proved themselves to be outstanding breeders, coupled with a limited amount of fairly close inbreeding, where the individual animals concerned appear to warrant this course, or where it is desired to fix some particular point, possibly with a view to producing a sire to use ourselves.

'The cattle are not quite so easy as the sheep, on account of the more limited choice. We keep approximately 220 Suffolk ewes, for which we usually use about eight rams, 160 Leicester ewes, with five or six rams, and 40 Aberdeen-Angus cows with two bulls, but one of these is often something of a standby, as, in view of present-day prices, one cannot afford to buy three or four bulls to serve a few cows each.

'It is often extremely difficult when choosing a sire to find one with particular points our herd or flocks need, and at the same time with the exact breeding which would be desired; and in the cattle it is not easy to keep a bull of our own breeding, as in many cases the females for which he was required would be his half-sisters, a mating which I think is desirable and justified in some cases but not as a general policy. By the system of line-breeding, it is aimed to blend the blood of two or three or even more outstanding animals in one, and then by the mating adopted one can concentrate further the blood of one animal and eliminate to a large extent the blood of another if desired.'

Prince Peter of Broadleys-Aberdeen-Angus bull

'This bull stood fifth in a class of nearly 100 bulls at the Perth sale, and was purchased for 2000 guineas. His pedigree is based on two outstanding animals, the bull Keystone of Dunira, which has been one of the most successful breeding bulls of the present century, and whose blood is very much sought after by nearly all the leading breeders; also the cow Pure Pride of Gaidrew, who has been the dam of many outstanding animals, and at nearly seventeen years old produced a bull which sold at Perth this year for 8 000 guineas.

'President of Gaidrew, by Keystone, out of Pure Pride, proved to be an outstanding breeding bull in the Rowley herd, and Mr. Donald, of Gaidrew, purchased a son, Ebony Caesar of Rowley, which, as will be noted from Prince Peter's pedigree, was out of a Gaidrew cow also by Keystone. This was mated back to a full-sister of President, and produced Prince Consort of Gaidrew, now used in Major Dixon's Broadleys herd. His first crop of bull calves averaged over 1000 guineas at Perth, his second crop 2 000 guineas, and his third crop nearly 3 000 guineas. It will be noted from the pedigree that Major Dixon mated Prince Consort to a Rowley cow, Pinkie P Gertrude of Rowley, who was also by President.

Prince Peter will be used on the daughters of these two bulls, and in several cases on daughters of Ballin Bremmor out of the females by Escutcheon, the policy being to bring this intense concentration of Keystone of Dunira and Pure Pride blood on to animals containing this somewhat small concentration of Keystone blood. It might also be noted that Keystone was the grandson of Justice Eric, another great breeding bull, and Justice was the grandsire on the dam's side of Escutcheon.'

Suffolk ram Southburn Rex

'This ram was supreme champion at the Royal Highland, at the RASE, Windsor, and at the Great Yorkshire in 1954, the only times shown. He is considered by many experienced judges to be one of the best Suffolk rams seen for several years, and is proving an extremely good sire in the Southburn flock.

'The basis of this ram's pedigree are the two rams, Brantharn Taurus and Kirton Challenger, both extremely good rams, which proved to be most successful sires in the Southburn flock. Brantharn Taurus was a son of Yeldharn Taurus 11, who bred very well in the Brantham flock, and a grandson of Yeldharn Taurus, an outstanding sire in the Yeldharn flock. Taurus was mated to a daughter of Kirton Challenger, and produced Southburn Mercury, an outstanding ram used most successfully in our flock. Mercury in turn was mated to a daughter of Badley Yeldham Choice, who had also been a most successful sire, and this

mating produced Southburn Arthur, which was purchased by Mr. Stanley Webb. He mated Southburn Arthur to a ewe, which was a granddaughter of Yeldharn Taurus, and produced Abbotts Quality, which I purchased for 360 guineas. Apart from the ram's own merits, I purchased him very largely on his pedigree, because he combined through Southburn Arthur the blood of the two rams, Southburn Mercury and Badley Yeldharn Choice, which had been the two most successful rams used in the Southburn flock for many years; and at the same time I was obtaining through the dam's side another cross of Yeldharn Taurus.

'I mated Abbotts Quality to a daughter of Southburn Mercury, which was his aunt, and on the dam's side this ewe, as the pedigree shows, had two crosses of Kirton Challenger in her, in addition to the cross on the sire's side, so that Southburn. Rex contains four crosses of Kirton Challenger, and three of Yeldham Taurus in his blood. Kirton Challenger was sired by Southburn Prince 2nd, an outstanding breeding ram in Mr. Stuart Paul's flock, who sired more than flO 000 worth of rams while he was used in that flock, in addition to many good females. The dam of Southburn Challenger was by Southburn Baronet 2nd, a son of Brantham Baronet, both of which were most successful breeding rams.'

Leicester ram Haywold Tyke

'This ram won supreme champion at the RASE at Windsor, and was unbeaten as a shearling ram in 1954. The real basis of this pedigree is the ram Hunmanby Demos, which was sired by a Haywold ram coming from a very good line of sheep. He sired Haywold Desire, used in the Haywold flock most successfully, and who was particularly successful when mated to ewes by North Dale Choice. This mating produced Haywold Pride, who was mated back to a daughter of Hunmanby Demos, another nephew-to-aunt mating. Haywold Tyke is being used again as a stock ram in the Haywold flock and his offspring are showing great promise.'

There is a feature in sheep pedigrees that may confuse readers: In the majority of flocks no individual records are kept of the females. These merely have a mark that tells the owner what ram they were by; and they have to be tattooed with the flock number.

For some years Sir William Prince-Smith had used a system of individual numbering, which, as will be observed from the pedigrees given herewith, applies to the younger ewes; but where a ewe is, for example, A7 or A16, it only indicates the flock to which it belongs. (A7 is the Southburn flock number). I fear that without the above explanation some people might have, for instance, assumed that the four ewes in Southburn

Rex's pedigree were all the same animal, which, of course, they are not.

Another point about sheep pedigrees, which should be borne in mind is this:

Owing to the fact that some breeders do not keep individual pedigrees of their ewes, it is not always possible to have full pedigrees, and you will note there are several blanks in those of Haywold Tyke, and one in that of Southburn Rex. One can always trace the sires back from the flock books, but not the dams. In the case of cattle, it is much more satisfactory, as both males and females are registered in the herd book, and one can trace their full pedigrees back for a matter of about 100 years.

Inbreeding with pigs

Mr. Richard Prince-Smith, Sir William's son, is establishing a stud of Large White pigs. He showed me the pedigrees of his original purchases and described the inbreeding system which he is pursuing. It was clear to me at the outset, judging by the details placed before me, that with these animals inbreeding is closer than in either cattle or sheep.

I think it will be helpful if I describe the testing scheme operated by the National Pig Breeders' Association at their Progeny Testing Station at Selby, because it provides a system of elimination of the undesirable, the necessity for which I stress so frequently in this book.

Four piglets from the same litter constituting what is described as a group, are sent to the station at

weaning when they are about 40 lb in weight. They are fed up to 70 lb, when the test actually commences.

During the test they are fed up to 210 lb or 212 lb and slaughtered. There is recorded a) age at slaughter, b) daily liveweight gain, c) total food consumption, d) food conversion-that is, amount of food consumed as related to liveweight increase. After killing, the different sections of the carcass are measured, and the measurements obtained determine the number of points allotted for quality.

The reports from the station indicate clearly to the owner which groups' parents should be retained for further breeding, and which are unsatisfactory. Obviously the sires and dams of those groups which have a good record at Selby will be prominent in the forward breeding plan.

Mr. Richard purchased his foundation stock of Large Whites from an inbred stud of excellent type.

Here we have Harlaston Royal Glen blood on both sides, and in addition have Tring Champion Boy 12th on the dam's side.

Incidentally, one can observe results with pigs much more quickly than with cattle. A boar can be used for service when he is eight or nine months old. A gilt will have her first litter at about a year, and she can have two litters within twelve months.

The aim at Southburn. is to breed pigs for bacon that will produce weight and quality of flesh at an early age with a comparatively low food consumption ratio. Mr. Richard (like his father) has always been convinced that this can be achieved by the employment of those inbreeding methods which have paid handsome dividends with sheep and cattle.

The pedigrees given herewith of the Large White pigs, Ardencote Lady Mollington 418th, Ardencote Catalina 34th, Ardencote Lady Mollington 426th and Ardencote Royal Turk 81st, have kindly been supplied to me by Mr. Richard Prince-Smith, and the comments beneath each are his.

For the benefit of readers of PRACTICAL INBREEDING who are not familiar with pig pedigrees I must explain that with these animals the same names are repeated generation after generation, but for the addition of a number, for example: Lady Mollington 418th and Lady Mollington 426th. The numbers in parentheses after the pigs' names indicate the number of piglets farrowed and the number reared.

There is one disadvantage which the breeders of the larger animals have to suffer as compared with the fanciers of birds and the smaller animals, and that is the length of time which it takes to prove the results, good or bad, of their matings.

For instance, in cattle it is not known until a bull's progeny are at least twelve month old (nearly two years from mating) whether he can or cannot be classified as a successful sire. Therefore, my readers will appreciate how careful the owner must be in selecting stud animals to cover his females. He cannot put right a mistake so speedily as can a pigeon or rabbit breeder. He cannot afford to experiment. He must not take risks.

Rabbits, cavies and mice

In the breeding of rabbits the principles and the procedure coincide perfectly with those applicable to birds, as described by me in Chapter 111, except that the use of stud bucks operates instead of the 'pair' process. It does so, however, in a modified form because the rabbit breeder usually has a number of stud bucks at his disposal in his own rabbitry. Nevertheless, it will be the best of these, or their proved prepotent sons, that he will use. If I were breeding rabbits I would concentrate greatly on the half-brother and sister, and father and daughter matings, as I will explain in Chapter V.

In the case of cavies, in the breeding of which a boar is run with several sows, I would only use boars of outstanding quality, and I would only have in their harems sows worthy of them. Just as the breeders of the larger animals, if they are wise, mate their females only to males of great excellence, so should the breeders of the smaller animals do likewise. In cavies the rule should be ruthless elimination not only of all the inferior youngsters but the sows which have bred them. That was my policy when I bred these fascinating little animals long ago.

In mice the system is somewhat similar to that utilized by cavy breeders. A buck is run with two or three does. As soon as a doe is obviously in kindle she is removed from the buck. There is no animal in which the result of an inbreeding plan can be more quickly assessed because of the speed at which mice produce offspring.

Inbreeding with dogs

I have never bred dogs extensively or ever tried to build up a strain in any canine breed, but had it ever been my ambition to do so I should have employed inbreeding on the lines described in this book.

I know that many successful kennels have been brought to a position of excellence by the skilful mating of relations, and I am pleased to find my contentions supported in Mr. Charles Castle's excellent book, which all dog breeders should read, Scientific Dog Management and Breeding, in which the author says:

' . . . Inbreeding purifies the stock because brothers and sisters, as would to a lesser degree cousins, carry very much the same groups of both defects and virtues, so the children are likely to get a double dose of each. By the breeder throwing out those showing defects and retaining only those showing virtues, the stock is purified by being reduced to a set of undefiled, dominant good qualities ...

'It is probable that in nature all defects tend to be recessive, and virtues dominant, the reason being that the rule in nature is "the survival of the fittest"; any dominant defects would immediately show up and the individuals possessing them would be killed off ; recessive defects could, however, remain hidden for generations.

'Authorities conclude, therefore, that the surest way of building up a breed of plants, or animals, is inbreeding coupled with a selection of the best parents and the elimination of the worst from the line.

'A good example of scientific inbreeding in dogs may be seen in the accompanying pedigree of two smooth fox terriers, bred by the late Mr. Robert Vicary and sold to America for a large price.

'As will be observed, starting with two outcrosses, Result and Rational, on the same bitch, Vesuvienne, the resulting half-sisters were mated to their dam's fullbrother (later litter), Venio; the resulting offspring of these two matings when mated together produced the two beautiful specimens, Veracity and Veracious. It is of further interest to note that Venilia, herself, was the grand-daughter, on both sides, of the same dog, Vedette; moreover her grandams are daughter and grand-daughter of the same bitch, and have the same dog, respectively, as sire and grandsire.

closely inbred; the modified policy of line-breeding or family-breeding, with frequent outcrosses, is much more common.

'Line-breeding, although it is the mating of less closely related stock is, actually, following the same principles of the theory of breeding as inbreeding, namely storing up the good qualities. By these methods, successful breeders have built up their own strain, or family of dogs, the matings having been carefully selected in accordance with the particular scheme they are following. Naturally, in line-breeding, the faults are not immediately brought to view, so very great care has to be exercised that a dog and a bitch, although they may be near perfection themselves, are not carrying the same recessive faults.

In order to arrange a mating an extensive knowledge of the breed is essential, so that the study of a pedigree brings to mind every dog named, their merits and their tendencies to faults. For example, supposing a strain is showing slightly defective feet and a mating is being considered with a dog who, in himself, excels in this; his ancestors for at least three generations back must be carefully considered to see if they had any tendency to poor feet; if they had, the dog is certain to have a recessive tendency to this which will intensify, instead of correct, this in the offspring of the contemplated mating.

"Like breeds like" is a true saying, but consideration must be given to what the parents are really like, that is what characteristics they are both carrying as well as showing. As will have been learnt from the brief study of theory, atavism, or "throwing back" can assert itself unexpectedly, after several generations. This shows the importance of a careful study of pedigrees on both sides, and a careful consideration of the prevailing family characteristics.

, Another form of line-breeding frequently practiced, sometimes called "stofing up the blood", is endeavoring to get an outstanding sire as the common male ancestor, or as many times as possible, in one generation of the pedigree. An example may be seen in the pedigree of Dr Rosslyn Bruce's smooth fox terrier, Champion Selecta All Alone, where Champion Little Aristocrat is the common grand-sire on both sides. An example of a modification of this is the pedigree of Mr. Brearley's wire fox terrier, Champion Talavera Romulus, where there is a cross of Champion Talavera Simon in each line of the pedigree.

'It should be remembered that every breed of dog is in- or line-bred to a great extent-every greyhound coursing or racing today traces back to King Cob

there are few smooth fox terriers that do not descend in direct tail-male from Foiler, who was born in 1871 and was the result of close inbreeding.

'As previously stated cross-breeding, sometimes referred to as out-breeding, consists of mating unrelated stock.

principle of mating two "likes" has, in fact, been obeyed-although it may have been the bringing together of recessive good qualities. Indiscriminate cross-breeding will never, consistently, produce good dogs.

'Studied out-breeding is, however, exceedingly valuable, and has to be frequently combined with in- or line-breeding. This may be necessary to correct some fault which is becoming dominant in a strain; or to improve some weakness or lack of stamina which may result from too long continued inbreeding from original stock which was not fit to carry the responsibility.'