708 REPORT OF TILE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 
One to sell for road purposes for $500 to $1,000 must have a fair de- : 
gree of speed, and to have a fair degree of speed he must have a fair 
degree of breeding. So that, while being careful to secure first the 
size, style, and beauty, the better bred your horse is, the more pure 
trotting blood you get in him, the better. This may be accepted as 
an important truth in regard to breeding this grand type of horse: | 
After the requisite size and style is secured, the better the trotting » 
blood the greater the value of the horse. But while having due re- 
gard to speed, size and beauty must be first aims, and they should 
not be sacrificed to any other consideration. Other things being — 
equal, the fastest and best-bred carriage horse is of course the most 
valuable, so that the wise breeder will seek, while keeping up the 
physical standard, to strengthen the trotting inheritance and im- 
prove the blood. It is still always well to remember that the men 
who make money breeding trotters are they who aim first and con- 
stantly to breed trotters, and he who would succeed in breeding car- 
riage and park horses will aim first and constantly to breed carriage 
and park horses. Have a purpose in breeding, and breed true to that 
purpose. 
Breed a mare that approaches your ideal of what the horse you 
seek to produce should be to a stallion the nearest to that ideal. 
Breed to a horse of size, substance, and beauty, whose progeny dem- 
onstrate that he gets size, substance, and beauty uniformly, and that 
they are characteristic of his blood. Breed to a horse that is above 
the suspicion of unsoundness in any particular. Breed to a horse of 
good action and good speed, whose colts are pure and positive in 
their gait, and breed to the horse that with all these qualities com- 
bines a strong trotting inheritance, and you can not fail to produce 
horses that will command remunerative prices for the park and the 
road and be a source of pleasure and profit in whatever sphere they 
are used. 
Although it has often resulted profitably, I do not conceive it ta be 
wise or judicious for the ordinary farmer or small breeder to embark 
in the business of producing horses purely for turf purposes. But if 
he aims to produce a turf horse, and still, in accordance with the 
courses advocated above, protects himself by so selecting breeding 
stock that the offspring will, whether with speed sufficient for the turf 
or not, still pay more than the cost of the production, he is certainly 
not increasing the risks any, and certainly is increasing the chances 
of very large profits. This involves grading up to the most fashion- 
able trotting blood, while preserving great excellence of structure, 
which should be an aim with every breeder, great or small, pur- 
sued with an energy and enterprise shaped to his circumstances. 
To produce a horse with the special capacity of turf fitness calls 
for a knowledge of the principles of breeding, an acquaintance with 
blood lines and their characteristics, and a familiarity with the 
qua*ifications necessary in turf horses, their production, and devel- 
opment, which few men haye the opportunity of acquiring. Breed, 
ing for trotting speed is a special and it may be said professional 
line of animal production, and unless a breeder be a very close 
student of the subject, with a thorough mastery of the records and 
of all theories and practices of breeding, it will be wise for him to 
leave the production of horses the profit in which depends on their 
fitness for the turf to those whose special business it 1s, and who are 
specially equipped for it. The fortunes of the turf are, at best, un- 
certain. 
