CLOSE BREEDING.
Inbred families are proverbially subject to tuberculosis. By pairing individuals that show in a marked degree the desired qualities of early maturity, heavy milking, or fattening, the greatest stimulus is given to the enhancement of such qualities, and with this there is the correspondingly ready receptiveness to the tubercle bacillus. To this is added a degree of constitutional delicacy which comes from too close breeding, and which otherwise shows itself in an encreasing infertility, when bred with an animal that is nearly related. In addition, the high bred animal is kept much indoors, where the bacillus, once introduced, is easily preserved and propagated, and is denied the free outdoor life and exercise which might develop muscle and vigor. This is no valid argument for introducing inferior blood to the deterioration of the economic value of a race, but rather for the complete exclusion of the bacillus which may find in our treasured herd an especially inviting field for its ravages.