258 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



of animals would eventually quadruple the aggregate value 

 of the hundred thousand horses in our Commonwealth. 



Authorities are not wanting to support these views. Cole, 

 in the American Veterinarian, sntys : "Among the most promi- 

 nent causes of degeneracy are breeding from worthless animals, 

 and in a hap-hazard manner. In some towns not one good 

 horse, male or female, can be found, and yet every sorry 

 jade has a foal, and perhaps by the most worthless horse in 

 the place." 



Youatt and Spooner say : " the Arabs have found out that 

 which the English breeder should never forget, that the female 

 is more concerned than the male in the excellence and value 

 of the produce. * * * There is scarcely a disease by which 

 either of the parents is affected, that the foal does not often 

 inherit, or at least show a predisposition to. Even the conse- 

 quences of ill usage or hard work will descend to the progeny. 

 There has been proof upon proof that blindness, broken wind, 

 spavin, ringbones and founder have been bequeathed to their 

 offspring, both by the sire and the dam." In regard to raising 

 colts from mares incapacitated for work by old age, they add : 

 " What is the consequence 1 The foal exhibits an unkindliness 

 of growth — a corresponding weakness — and there is scarcely an 

 organ that possesses its natural and proper strength." 



Heibert's Hints to Horse Keepers speaks in this wise: " We 

 know it is commonly said by farmers, concerning some mis- 

 erable, undersized, ewe-necked, cat-hammed wretch of a mare, 

 broken winded, ringboned and spavined, ' oh, she will do to 

 raise colts out of.' So she will. But the breeder had better, 

 for all purposes, especially for his own pecuniary benefit, have 

 shot her at once, for the colt will not be worth the mare's 

 grass." 



Allen on Domestic Animals, says: " such animals should be 

 selected as most eminently possess those points which it is 

 desired to propagate, and these they should not only exhibit 

 in themselves, but should inherit, as far as possible, from a 

 long line of ancestry." 



Richardson says : "the infirmities of the mare are perpet- 

 uated in her wretched offspring. Breed from none but sound 

 parents ; accidents, however, are not to be regarded as un- 

 soundness." 



