80 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. ^ 



feat. Either condition is fatal to breeding. The reason 

 "Ethan Allen" got so many weak-kneed, nervous colts, was 

 because he was kept in a nervous condition by constant trials 

 of speed. The two horses that, by a combination of their 

 qualities, would have given us the perfect horse, in ray opinion, 

 were old "George M. Patchen" and "Ethan Allen." In 

 those two horses, you had about all an , American could 

 desire in a horse. In one you had size, in the other you had 

 beauty. In both you had speed ; in both, a splendid tem- 

 perament. In one, plenty of bone structure ; in the other, 

 the finest bone structure. The intercrossing of their respect- 

 ive descendants would have given us, as I think, pretty nearly 

 the perfect horse. Both were wasted, both were absolutely 

 spilled, as you spill a barrel of liquid when you pull out the 

 tap and let it run out on the cellar floor. No conservatism 

 was exercised, no guard was put around them. "Justin 

 Morgan" was killed, was wasted, just as "George M. Patchen" 

 and "Ethan Allen" were wasted, — the three horses that stand 

 as stock horses ahead of all the horses America has ever 

 known. 



Here are the essentials in a stock horse : First, size. A 

 stock horse should be sizable, — about 15.2 in height, and 

 1,050 in weight. I would, as a rule, never breed from a 

 horse that did not weigh 1,000 pounds, or that did not stand 

 15.2. There are exceptions, of course. There are many horses 

 that are excellent stock horses that do not stand 15.2 One of 

 the best stock horses I have in my stable stands about an 

 inch and a half under that ; yet, by proper crossing, I can 

 make a great success at the first cross, but it requires proper 

 crossing to remedy his defect. Let another man manage him ; 

 let a man, for instance, buy him, pay a high figure for him, 

 and try to get that money back as quick as he can ; take 

 dams of all sizes and all temperaments, and the result would 

 inevitably be failure, as it has been under like conditions 

 with more than half the stock horses of New England. 

 "Tom Jetferson " is under size ; "Ethan Allen" is under size : 

 this is the one great defect of his life as a stock horse ; 

 " Lambert" is under size. Those horses, if properly managed, 

 would have been extraordinary stock horses ; but under no 

 management, and held by their owners only to make the 



