LECTURES AND ESSAYS READ AT INSTITUTES. 143 



knowledge and experience upon this subject. Still we feel like expressing our 

 individual thoughts and opinions upon the subject rather than those of others 

 however high they may be. Therefore we say we agree with his proposition 

 laid down in Paile 13, that ''The purer or less mixed the breed the more 

 likely it is to be transmitted to the offspring," and we agree with his Rule 13, 

 "That like produces like or the like of some ancestor," with this qualifi- 

 cation or addition, that like produces like, or the mixed qualities of its ances- 

 tors. It is an admitted fact that no two blades of grass are alike ; no two 

 living beings were ever known to be exactly alike. 



That great father of trotters. Imported Messenger, never sired a colb like 

 himself in the strict sense of the term, neither did Rysdyk's Hambletonian, so 

 with the Godolphin Barb or Arabian, so with English Boston, Lexington, and 

 the great Leamington. Although in all of these their reproductive powers were 

 great, perhaps unsurpassed, still their progeny partook more or less of the 

 admixture of former ancestors. There never was but one Leamington, 

 Lexington, Boston, Eclipse, Godolphin, Arabian, Eysdyk's Hambletonian, or 

 Messenger, although, as has been said, each of these possessed in a marked 

 degree the power of transmitting his qualities to his offspring. Assuming 

 these two propositions to be correct, either as stated by the learned author or 

 the speaker, how are we to reconcile them with his rule 11, where he says : 

 "Nor is anything known of the laws which regulate temperament, bodily 

 or mental power, color, or conformation of the resulting offspring." If this 

 proposition be true what becomes of the other two rules, 12 and 13, where 

 purity of blood is recommended because of its iniiuence on the progeny, and 

 where like is said to produce like, in order that we might have some sort of 

 guide. If the 11th proposition of the learned author be strictly true, then it 

 appears to us that the other two must be untrue and worthless, and the 

 breeder is all afloat upon a sea of uncertainty and chance without chart or 

 compass, and in breeding is as likely, after all his care and pains, to get a bodily 

 and mentally weak mouse-colored pony, and of a poor and unsound conform- 

 ation as the produce of a large, sound, bay thoroughbred mare of perfect 

 conformation coupled with a thoroughbred stallion of tlie same family as the 

 mare, both of which have been bred through a long line of large ancestry of 

 pure and unmixed blood of one color and of perfect conformation. We either 

 do not comprehend this rule 11 or we must beg leave to dissent from it. 

 Therefore, for the purpose of this lecture we will reject it as a fallacy. 



We will suggest to you, gentlemen, and to the breeder of our domestic ani- 

 mals, a few general rules that have suggested themselves to us in our limited 

 research and experience, which may be of some value to those who do not 

 understand the subject better, leaving all to niake such additions and altera- 

 tions as commend themselves to their good judgnient. 



First, The purer and less mixed the breed, the more likely it will be to be 

 transmitted to the offspring; hence the one of purest blood will, as a rule, be 

 likely to be more strongly represented in the offspring. 



Second, As the male and female are each supposed to furnish their quota in 

 the formation of the embryo, each will be represented in it in a great degree, 

 according to the health, breeding, and strength of the nervous system of each 

 at the time of copulation, but as the embryo depends upon the mother for its 

 food, in health and constitutional powers, it will be more likely to be like her 

 in this respect. Yet, since the sire is represented in furnishing a portion of 

 the original germ, the foal will be more likely to be like him in general char- 

 acter and conformation. 



