124 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



much less value. The name of this class is derived from " haraf,^' 

 mixed. 



"El Hadg-in" is superior in quality on the same principle that 

 a man whose father is white and whose mother is a negress, is 

 superior to him whose mother is white and father a negro. 



"ElBerdoune" is that class in which both sire and dam are 

 badly bred. 



And he adds, "This animal is a stranger to our country. The 

 value of a horse is his breeding." 



I may have tired you with this subject and will pass to another 

 point not so well established, but one that nevertheless is beyond 

 doubt of much importance ; that is, the effect of the first impreg- 

 nation upon succeeding progeny. 



The influence of the first impregnation may qualify all subsequent 

 ones. That it does many of them in a marked manner is well 

 known to many breeders, here and elsewhere. I was urged to 

 visit the College of Surgeons in England and examine the examples 

 to be seen there preserved, which were the result of experiments 

 to that end. I have regretted that I did not do so. Very marked 

 instances have come under my own observation, and so convinced 

 am I of this qualifying effect that I would not breed a mare 

 which had been previously bred to an objectionable horse. And 

 if I desire to breed in direction of the sire as much as possible I 

 would select a mare that had never been stinted to any horse but 

 the one selected. 



I have in my stable at home a chestnut gelding by Gen. Knox. 

 This gelding has a striped face and very peculiar hind feet and 

 pasterns, and a peculiar manner of placing his feet upon the floor, 

 a peculiar gait and temper. His dam was white by a white horse 

 and Knox is black by a black horse. This colt has no resemblance 

 to either sire or dam but is a second edition of a colt of the mare 

 by Iliram Drew, and the build, temper, color and marks of Hiram 

 Drew and a close reseniblance to that horse's colts in many 

 instances. 



Now if the embryo is the result of the contact of the semen 

 with the ovum may not more than one of the ovaries be influenced 

 by the same contact, and while one is fructified may not the otlier 

 be influenced so that a subsequent copulation may bring it to life 

 somewhat under tlie first influence. This is urged by many writers 

 and thinkers. Is there any other satisfactory tlicory for the effect 

 of coupling King Charles spaniels and black and tan dogs, and the 



