BREEDING 183 



But at any rate the offspring will be "horses," and not 

 dogs, or cattle, or some other branch of the mammalian 

 order. Though what is known amongst florists as " sports " 

 continually occur in all organic life, such departures as the 

 above from an established " race " are quite impossible. 

 Even the children of two white parents can never be 

 negroes ; nor those of Orientals have the features of 

 Europeans. 



Particular traits are frequently fixed in certain families, 

 in which such are pre-eminent, and are most certainly 

 inherited, though different members vary to a considerable 

 extent in their possession of them. These may even lie 

 dormant for a generation owing perhaps to disuse from want 

 of opportunity for their exercise, or some other cause, but 

 unless they are not called for during several generations, they 

 are sure to crop up at the first favourable opportunity. If 

 the same care was taken to join in matrimony human beings 

 of like proclivities for many generations, as man takes with 

 regard to animals under his care, such tendencies would 

 in all probability become even more fixed than they 

 are at present. In breeding horses of any description the 

 same principle must be kept in mind, and individuals should 

 be selected, as parents, from such families as have much 

 merit in the particular direction desired. Then if well- 

 developed animals are chosen, without hereditary ailments, 

 whose immediate ancestors, moreover, have also been true- 

 shaped and adapted to the special work required, the 

 foundation should be laid for a successful progeny. 



The further building up of the produce must largely 

 depend on due care and judicious feeding, both during the 

 pregnancy of the dam, the period of suckling, and 

 the first years of youthful development, but especially 

 during the first winter. A young animal must always be 

 kept growing, and should never be allowed to be checked 

 in its growth. If the " calf-flesh " is once lost, it is both 

 difficult and takes a long time to get the tender young one 

 started again ; and it will never be quite as good as it might 

 have been if there had been no drawback. A very frequent 

 cause of trouble is the time of weaning, when a foal always 



