PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 93 



suppose you all know about that as well as I do. I have 

 been through the ring, and know all about the inside of this 

 matter of gambling, — the pools that are sold, and the amount 

 of money that is put at stake. If that was carried on in any 

 of our cities or towns, the parties would have the authorities 

 down upon them : but at the track it seems to be all right ; 

 you can gamble there. I know, that, when we see a horse 

 start off, we get interested in Mr. So-and-So's horse, and we 

 are apt to put our hands into our pockets, and put up five 

 dollars, and perhaps a great deal more, when we ought not 

 to. The whole thing is exciting and demoralizing ; and 

 therefore I go against it on that ground, if on no other. 



I have not time to say much on the question of breeding ; 

 but I want to say one thing : be sure you breed from perfect 

 animals. Do not breed from a mare because she has given 

 out here or there, or has some defect. If there is any defect 

 in the mare or horse, it is just as sure to be transmitted as 

 can be. I have had a little experience in this way. I own 

 a mare which no money would buy, because I bred her. I 

 owned her mother and her grandmother before her. Her 

 descent was in a direct line from old Sherman Morgan. 

 The grandmother was thirty-three years old when she died 

 on my hands, and she was a grand-daughter of old Sherman 

 Morgan. A spavin came out upon the old horse ; and that 

 spavin has followed his descendants all the way down, and 

 appears in the mare that I drive to-day. But for that spavin, 

 I would not take a thousand dollars for her. I am hoping 

 now to get her so that she will not go lame. I remember a 

 well-known stock horse that had a ring-bone in his foot ; and 

 almost invariably his colts had ring-bones in their feet. 

 Then I remember another horse that came from New York 

 forty years ago, — a celebrated horse in his day (that is, so 

 far as looks, and so on, were concerned) ; but he was so 

 vicious that nobody could handle him. That horse was 

 never driven, to my recollection ; and all the colts that came 

 from him were utterly vicious, but all good-looking. There 

 was not one of them that could be broken so that it could 

 be made useful on the farm, or as a driving-horse. 



The question of the influence of the male and female on 

 their progeny has been much discussed. I suppose it is a 

 scientific question not yet settled. I don't pretend to under- 



