disinfecting, and sufficient protection from the intense heat of summer,
good health, and a reasonable amount of success can be confidently
expected, but disease will surely find an entrance where these
requirements are not met.

I would like to add that kennels only large enough for white mice, or
perchance piebald rats, can never be successfully used to raise Boston
terriers in.

CHAPTER IV.

GENERAL HINTS ON BREEDING.

Having become possessed of suitable kennels to house his stock, the
breeder is confronted with the great question: How and where shall I
obtain my breeding stock? Much depends on a right start and the getting of
the proper kind of dogs for the foundation. Our celebrated Boston poet,
Oliver Wendell Holmes, when asked when a child's education should begin,
promptly replied, "A hundred years before it was born." This contains an
inherent truth that all breeders of choice stock of whatever description
it may be, recognize. To be well born is half the battle, and I think this
applies with particular force to the Boston terrier, for without a good
ancestry of well bred dogs, possessing the best of dispositions,
constitutions and conformity to the standard, he is worse than useless.

Whether the start is made with one bitch or a dozen, I believe the best
plan to follow is to obtain of a reliable breeder, noted for the general
excellence of his dogs in all desirable characteristics, what he considers
the best stock obtainable for breeding purposes. This does not imply, of
course, that these bitches will be candidates for bench honors, but it
does mean that if mated with suitable sires the production of good,
all-round puppies with a reasonable amount of luck will be the result. It
would be useless to attempt to deal with the subject of breeding in more
than a few of its aspects, for after a period of twenty-five years of
expended and scientific experiments in the breeding exclusively of
Bostons, I shall have to confess that there are many problems still
unsolved. The rules and regulations that govern the production of many
other breeds of dogs seem impotent here, the assumption that "like
produces like" does not seem to hold good frequently in this breed, but
perhaps the elements of uncertainty give an unspeakable charm to the
efforts put forth for the production of the dogs which will be a credit to
the owner's kennel. The old adage that "there is nothing duller than a
_puzzle_ of which the ans