rchase or use of the pure bred or improved sire. The
original outlay is infinitely less, whilst the immediate results are
comparatively longer.

It is scarcely desirable to go further into the question as to the
comparative influence on the young of the sire and the dam since our
actual knowledge of the subject is by no means large. Indeed, it is at
the least doubtful, if by the closest observation any definite opinion
on the subject is possible, so great is the difference which varying
parents have on the chief characteristics of their joint progeny, and
even in the separate specimens which they have procreated. Of course, it
is quite possible to breed animals especially well developed or endowed
with certain qualities, providing that the parents have been for
generations selected because of their possession in a marked degree of
those particular qualities sought. It is in this power of prepotency
that one of the chief benefits from the use of a pure bred sire or dam
arises. By the term pure bred is not meant merely that the names of a
certain number of the forbears of the animal shall have been recorded in
the register of the breed, but that the animal shall for a certain
number of generations have been bred on similar lines so that it shall
possess a considerable amount of concentrated blood. This is a point to
which sufficient care is not generally given by purchasers of so-called
pedigree sires to be used on the ordinary bred or graded stock. The far
too common practice is to purchase each boar required from a totally
different herd, or from one of quite dissimilar breeding, with the
result that there is not the slightest uniformity in the appearance or
character of the herd, or of the mature animals when ready for market.

It is far too frequently forgotten that the chief value of a record of
the pedigree is that by it one can trace the breeding of the animal's
progenitors, and thus one is enabled to form some opinion of the
probable produce--providing it is possible to learn the chief
characteristics of the progenitors. Failing this, the only course open
is to note the names of the breeders of the more recent parents, as from
this a certain amount of information as to the probable qualities of the
parents may be obtained or surmised.

Another point on which at least a diversity of opinion exists, is the
wisdom of giving so much consideration to the fact that the herd from
which the sire is purchased shall have