QUALITIES TRANSMITTED. 99 



never fret ; he never gets irritated, and they never get irritated ; 

 he marches on, and they march on. Just exactly as it was said 

 in old times : " I would rather have an army of stags with a 

 lion for a leader, than an army of lions with a stag for a leader." 

 Take the best team of cattle you can conceive of, shaped all 

 right, measuring right, weighing right, and in proper condition, 

 out of the hands of such a teamster as I have spoken of, and 

 put them into the hands of a man of the opposite characteristics, 

 and you will find that your team will partake of the character 

 of the man. And it is exactly so with breeding animals. A 

 patient, good-tempered, intelligent, well-behaved stallion is put 

 into a stable, and is approached with a club, and muzzled, and 

 sworn at, and frightened ; and, when brought out to cover a 

 mare, if he fails to make a noise, and break down the fence, and 

 tear up the earth, he is put down as a dull, stupid fellow, not fit 

 for the purpose of breeding, and is irritated, pounded and lashed 

 into this excited state simply that he may be a gallant stallion ! 

 The old song says: "There was General Washington, upon a 

 strapping stallion ; " and it seems to me that is about the best 

 expression I ever heard to describe what some men seem to value 

 most in a horse. A breeder who undertakes, as they say, to keep 

 a " stud horse," must have a " strapping stallion ; " and he keeps 

 his " strapping stallion " up to this mark ; and for a time he 

 will cover up all the defects of the animal — his miserable shoul- 

 der, his round fore leg, his feeble stifles, inefficient back, and 

 shocking tail, by the exhibition of the power that he has to con- 

 vert him, before all mares and all observers, into a " strapping 

 stallion." What sort of condition and temper is that horse in 

 for the purposes of breeding ? What state of mind is he in to 

 go about his business ? What sort of temper do you expect he 

 is going to transmit to his posterity ? Why, if he were let alone 

 he might do a decent thing ; if he were allowed to preserve his 

 equilibrium he might possibly be tolerable ; but in the state of 

 irritation he is in, he not only transmits his weak organization to 

 his posterity, but he also transmits the acquired honors of his 

 disposition — that intellectual condition which has been impressed 

 upon him by the man who does not know how to take care of 

 him. In this whole matter of temperament, it is the man who 

 rules and controls the animals. He can transmit to the crea- 

 tures he produces on his farm his own placid soul if he likes. 



