Cross- Breeding in Horses. 163 



the blood mare than to adopt the reverse plan ; the former course 

 being almost sure to bring a good animal. A blood mare, the 

 property of an uncle of mine, bred seven foals by hackney and 

 cross-bred horses, and all proved animals worth a good deal of 

 money." 



My purpose in adducing these examples is to show that useful 

 horses almost always, and valuable ones very frequently, can be 

 bred as hack, hunters, and carriage-horses by using the half or 

 threeparts-bred stallion with well-bred mares, so as to secure a 

 sufficient amount of substance to carry weight. Not that Ave can 

 thus breed horses of greater value than by using the thorough- 

 bred stallion with suitable mares, for we can scarcely have too 

 much breed, provided we have sufficient substance ; but by 

 following the system recommended, if we do not succeed in 

 getting higher prices, we shall at any rate have fewer failures. 



We have seen that with regard to sheep at least three dif- 

 ferent and valuable breeds have been inaugurated by cross- 

 breeding, careful selection, and constant weeding ; and the 

 prevailing opinion is, that these possess certain desirable quali- 

 fications which render them more profitable than their parent 

 races. Still there are those who deny this, and contend that 

 there are pure breeds of sheep that can supply every requi- 

 site. Be that as it may, the case is much stronger with regard 

 to the horse ; for there is no one who would contend that the 

 qualifications of a first-class weight-carrying hunter can be met 

 Avith in any one pure or original breed, or that it can be other- 

 wise secured than by the well-assorted alliance of blood and bone. 

 Surely, then, if with sheep we can succeed in the course of twenty 

 years in establishing a distinct breed, we can with equal or 

 greater ease establish a breed of horses that will support with 

 ease a six-foot guardsman with his heavy accoutrements, and 

 dash into the charge with all the speed and spirit induced by 

 the influence of a full equivalent of blood derived from both 

 parents. The French are already trying this system ; and if we 

 are remiss, Avill in a few years surpass our cavalry in its most 

 essential characteristic. There can be no reason why the defects 

 Avhich crop out after the first cross should not be as readily 

 extinguished in the horse as in the sheep. 



It is as well to notice, that valuable as is the Norfolk trotting 

 stallion, when put to well-bred mares for breeding hacks, he is 

 as a rule too deficient in size to get dragoon-horses, or those 

 v/eight-carrying hunters which have been the glory of our land. 



One argument adduced by the advocates of the universal em- 

 ployment of the full-blood sire is somewhat plausible, and has not 

 perhaps been sufficiently disposed of. They say, it is desirable 

 to have a pure-blood on one side at least, so that defects apper- 



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