The Parents of Great Men 



405 



taken into account. The more aged 

 parent has accumulated more experi- 

 ence, which he can pass on to his 

 children by word of mouth and by 

 example (not, as Mr. Redfield supposes, 

 through his germ-plasm). It may be 

 that the later-bom children in a family 

 benefit in a similar way, the father 

 having more often reached an age where 

 he can retire from most active work and 

 spend more time on the training of his 

 children; and farther, they have a 

 distinct advantage in being stimu- 

 lated to rival their elder brothers and 

 sisters. 



These and similar considerations may 

 account in large part for the general 

 fact that great men are the product of 

 late marriages. Whether or not they 

 are wholly sufficient, it is highly un- 



scientific to ignore them utterly as Mr. 

 Redfield does. 



Apart from these educational differ-- 

 ences, it is not impossible that order 

 of birth is associated with differences 

 of some sort in mental inheritance, as 

 it is with physical inheritance. It is 

 known that the later-born members of 

 a family are more variable in height 

 and weight. It is also known that the 

 earlier born members of a family are 

 longer-lived than are the later-born. 

 On the whole, the younger parents seem 

 to bear the physically better children; 

 it is difficult to believe that there is an 

 antithesis between mental and physical 

 traits, as would exist if Mr. Redfield 

 could prove his hypothesis. The whole 

 problem needs careful study from this 

 aspect. 



THE EVIDENCE FROM LIVE-STOCK BREEDING 



Mr. Redfield has made use of pedi- 

 grees of trotting horses, milk cows and 

 dogs to support his views, and was 

 anxious to secure, through the American 

 Genetic Association, additional evidence 

 from the field of live-stock breeding. 

 The only material submitted under this 

 head is from Lucille H. Cruickshank 

 and G. N. Neagle of the University of 

 Kentucky, who call attention to the 

 brown mare Fereno (born 1897), winner 

 of the Kentucky Futurity as a two- 

 year-old (2:17) and again in the follow- 

 ing year (2:10%). Later she reduced 

 her record to 2:053^. This record 

 places her among a select few of the 

 standard breed. 



Her sire is Moko, who has no record, 

 and who was only 3 years bf age when 

 he sired her. His training prior to this 

 time is negligible, as he went lame and 

 was sent to the stud instead of the 

 track. Moko's dam and her line of 

 dams were mares of no consequence, so 

 far as performance is concerned, and 

 there is no record of their doing any- 

 thing on the track. Their value as 

 brood mares is in their possession of 

 the blood of Stockbridge Chief and 

 Hambletonian 10. 



Hettie Case, the dam of Fereno, was 



a good-looking mare, but has no record, 

 and is said never to have been trained. 

 The custom in Kentucky is to allow the 

 brood mares and fillies intended for 

 brood mares to run in the pastures, 

 and they do not get any other exercise 

 than eating blue-grass. After her 

 famous daughter, Fereno, became 

 known, Hettie Case had every oppor- 

 tunity to produce trotting colts to good 

 sires, but her other produce were 

 failures. 



The dam of Hettie Case was Rosa 

 vSprague, who was only 4 years old when 

 Hettie Case was foaled. She has no 

 record, and in fact was not a trotting- 

 bred mare at all except on her sire's 

 side, and is recorded as nonstandard. 

 She is said to have had no training. 



Moko is living, is noted as a sire of 

 futurity winners, and has a most 

 wonderful record as a sire of fast trot- 

 ting horses, standing perhaps only 

 second to any living or dead sire of the 

 breed; yet he has not since his three- 

 year-old form, despite all his oppor- 

 tunities in the stud to secure the very 

 best bred mares of the United States, 

 been able to produce a foal that has 

 had the ability to lower the record of 

 Fereno. '^" 



12 This is no longer true. Last year The Real Lady, a daughter of Moko, made a record of 

 2:0434. See Wallace's Yearbook, Vol. xxxii, p. 623. Up to the time that volume of the yearbook 

 was compiled, Moko was the sire of 132 recorded trotters and 11 pacers. 



