78 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



perfect, — one I know is perfect, — one that can transmit himself, 

 if he is not bothered and interrupted in doing it, by the dam. 

 I know I can, I say, select such a stallion in New York, in 

 New England, and in six or eight stables in the Middle States ; 

 and if I can find a dam that will not trouble that sire in the 

 offspring, I can repeat the sire in every colt. The Arabs may 

 have selected their dams in that way. 



Now, then, will you see the possibility of this old Arab 

 maxim being true in our practice? First, select a dam that 

 will simply carry the foal, feeding it with its blood and milk, 

 but not affecting it at all, and then select a horse that has, 

 first, the general excellence you want, then the special excel- 

 lence, and then the power to transmit both the general and 

 special excellence, and would not the maxim be true, that 

 " the foal follows the sire " ? 



Vicious ones should never be bred to. Men raise sinners 

 enough ; we do not need to imitate them in raising equine 

 imps. It is a crime to breed an ugly dam either to an ugly 

 horse, or a good-natured horse. No mare that bites, leers 

 or kicks can be bred in my stables. There is not money 

 enough in Haverhill to get one of those vicious mares into my 

 stalls. It is not business to do it. I am not actuated by any 

 higher motive than the old Yankee wooden-nutmeg sense 

 that is born in us down in Connecticut. It is not business to 

 do it ; for I know that the colt would kill somebody in the 

 attempt to break him, and the sire Avould get a reputation for 

 . being ugly, when the real cause is in the dam, and the result 

 would be, that " viciousuess " would be written in popular 

 characters over my stable. 



Observe, also, that the foal partakes of the physical and 

 nervous condition of the sire and the dam, not as they are by 

 nature, but as they are at the time when the foal is conceived. 

 These are rudimental principles; but, gentlemen, they lie at 

 the base of success in breeding. I doubt whether our arbi- 

 trary fashion of manafjinor the sire and dam at the time of 

 conception is not one of the prime causes of our failure in 

 breeding, when you are talking about success in the really 

 high and fine sense. I notice that the principles of selection, 

 of favoritism and aifinity, God has not left out of the horse 

 structure ; I notice that there are some dams that do not take 



