CHANGING THE SIRES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2360, 18 May 1899, Page 36

CHANGING THE SIRES.

Perdita 11, dam of Persimmon and Florizel, has again been mated with St. Simon, an alliance Mr Allison does not approve of for the following reasons : In the whole history of the turf there has never been a mare who bred repeatedly to the same sire without the produce deteriorating. The scientists are still at loggerheads on the subject of saturation or telegony, and no doubt they will eventually find out as a fact what has long been a matter of common knowledge among breedeis of any experience; but be that as it may most of us are Fatisfied in these rapid days to judge simply by results, and judgment on that score is dead against mating a mare repeatedly with the same horse. My readers were right in selecting other horses last year for Perdita 11, and I ouly wish some such change as they advised had been adopted. The whole world thrives on change, whether it be in respect of climate, soil, nutrition or individual mating — the late Lord Falmouth knew this well — and though I should be the last to suggest carrying such ideas into the domestio affairs of mankind, nevertheless I am quite convinced that any scientific system for the improvement of the human race woiild have to be worked out on similar " lines.