143 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



they could in a short time have two pounds of beef where they now have one; 

 could as well raise a horse of the value of two hundred dollars as one of the 

 value of one hundred dollars. This could be done with the addition of but a 

 small expense, and will apply to all our domestic animals. This would not 

 only enrich the individual, but the nation. The value of our domestic animals 

 in the United States is about two billions of dollars. This amount could be 

 more than doubled in five years, without adding to the number, with proper 

 care and attention to breeding. We would not be understood in this lecture 

 that by high breeding we desire to recommend the breeding of any particular 

 kind of stock, nor any particular family or strain, but the elevation of each 

 by careful, thoughtful, and Judicious selections and breeding. One engag- 

 ing in the business of breeding stock should be governed by the kind or 

 kinds he desires to rear and the depth of his purse, the soil and the climate 

 where they are to be raised and locality as to market, and other circumstances 

 under which he may be placed. 



One raising swine in Maine would not be likely to make it profitable with 

 the same type as one in a great corn-producing state and distant from market 

 like Kansas. One raising cattle in the East, near the great cities of the coun- 

 try, where milk, cheese and butter are in great demand, would not be likely to 

 want same strain as one distant from market and in a great grazing country 

 like Texas. One having a few brood mares with a mixed farming business and 

 limited means, would not be likely to make a success in raising colts from the 

 same strains as those reared upon our great stud farms. When one desires to 

 raise any kind of stock and has come to the conclusion as to the particular 

 kind he desires to rear, he should then strive to jDroduce the most perfect 

 ones of their kind, as they will always prove to be the most profitable. 



How to do this is the important question under consideration. This is 

 a problem that can hardly be solved ; it cannot be demonstrated. Although 

 there are some general principles that may be suggested that will be beneficial 

 to some, and they are so plain and self-evident that they need but to be stated 

 to be understood and approved by the thoughtful. 



Mr. Stonehenge, in his very valuable book, entitled, " The Horse in the 

 Stable and the Field," gives his readers sixteen rules under the head of Prin- 

 ciples of Breeding. They are entitled to great weight and credit on account 

 of the high authority from whence they emanated. Mr. Herbert, in his val- 

 uable work, entitled, "The Horse of America," copies these rules verbatim, 

 and approves of and comments upon them at great length. 



Mr. Youatt, in his very valuable work entitled "Youatton the Structure 

 and Diseases of the Horse," uses some of them without comment, is silent as 

 to others. In regard to them we are willing to confess that some are beyond 

 our comprehension, that some of them are so intricate that we do not 

 understand them and we think are not susceptible of demonstration or proof, 

 therefore we do not adopt or reject them. Some of the others are slightly in 

 conflict with each other. To illustrate: Under his Eule 11, which is "The 

 influence of the male upon the Embryo," he uses this language : " Nor is 

 anything known of the laws which regulate the temperament bodily, or mental 

 power, color, or conformation of the resulting offspring." In Eule 12 he 

 lays down this principle. "That like produces like or the like of some 

 ancestor." In Eule 13 he says " The purer or less mixed the breed the more 

 likely it is to be transmitted to the offspring." In discussing these questions 

 we approach them with a great deal of caution and delicacy, on account of 

 their very high and learned authority and on account of our very limited 



