The enormous benefit which has resulted from the use of pedigree sires is most clearly proved in the Irish live stock. The so-called premium bulls and boars are pedigree animals purchased by or with the sanction of the Live Stock Commissioners and placed at the service of the general public at a somewhat reduced fee, the Government paying to the owner an annual premium of some £15 for each bull, and a certain sum for each boar. It is alleged that the original improvement in the ordinary pig stock of those parts of Ireland where pig-keeping on a considerable scale is followed, was due to the purchase in England of numbers of Large White boars, as after experiments carried out in Denmark, these boars were found to effect the greatest improvement in the common country pigs and to render them far more suitable for conversion into the kind of bacon which was in most general demand, and of course realised the highest price. For the beginning of the vast improvement in the Irish pig which has followed the importation of these Large White boars, the Irish bacon curers must receive the credit, as they joined together in the purchase of these boars which were distributed in those districts from which the various factories drew their supplies of fat pigs. A similar plan was adopted by Messrs. Harris of Calne who purchased some hundreds of boars of the Large White breed, and at first lent them on certain conditions to pig breeders, but later on resold the young boars by auction for whatever they would fetch, their object being to secure the use of these boars in order to render the farm pigs more suitable for the purposes of their trade as bacon curers. There may or may not be any grounds for the belief that the sire has a greater influence in the external form of the joint produce than does the dam, but this belief has also had its influence in determining breeders of cross breds to use the pure bred sire on the ordinary stock of the country, rather than the reverse way. There is no doubt that apart from the improvement in the general quality of the produce of the pure bred sire there results a general uniformity of the young stock, which is a great recommendation when they are placed on the market either as stores, or when fattened for the butcher or bacon curer. This uniformity of type and character in the young stock would be more noticeable still if the buyers of the pure bred sires were to continue their purchases from the same herds, providing that the owners of them were sufficiently careful in avoiding incestuous breeding.