THE NATIONAL HORSE OF AMERIOA. 709 
Every breeder of domestic animals should feel an obligation to 
himself to master the cardinal principles underlying reproduction 
of desired qualifications in stock, and in conclusion a brief résumé 
of these central principles seems in order. I do not propose to deal 
minutely with the complexities of the subject or to discuss theories, 
unless a plain statement of certain principles of natural law may 
seem to combat or support certain theories of breeding. He who 
would arrive at sound conclusions on this or any subject should dis- 
miss prejudices and preconceived opinions and follow the truth, 
no matter to where it leads. 
Perhaps the most direct declaration of the true principles of scien- 
tific breeding is to say that they are comprised wholly in the law of 
heredity, and that just so far as any theory agrees with this uni- 
versal law it is right; but at the point where any theory conflicts 
with a known principle of heredity, there does it leave the realm 
of reason and truth and rest itself in error. Horses, as well as 
men, are what they inherit, or rather, [ should say, the creatures of 
inherited characteristics and instincts. In the blood of every being 
is represented the distinctive qualities of both its parents, and through 
them his four grand parents, eight great-grand parents, and so on 
until, if we go back five generations, we find he has a line of in- 
heritance to thirty-two distinct sources. In this being, the charac- 
teristics of one ancestor may dominate; in his full brother the pecu- 
liarities of another in the line of inheritance may rule. Andsoif we 
investigate we find that every peculiarity, every virtue, every vice, 
every talent, every weakness noticeableinthe living subject of to-day | 
had its counterpart in some degree, if not in the immediate parents, 
in some ancestor more or less remote. This truth we express in the 
oft-quoted maxim: Like produces like or the likeness of some ancestor. 
It is, then, patent to the mind that the more diverse the inherited 
capacities of the parents are the less certainly can we foretell what 
special qualities will be most conspicuous in the offspring. If one 
special characteristic was noticeable in the parents, the grand parents, 
and the great-grand parents, the offspring is infinitely more certain 
to have that special characteristic in a highly developed form than it 
some of the ancestors were remarkable for an antagonistic character- 
istic. It is by the light of this law which gives uniform results in 
exact proportion to the strength and harmony of the inheritance that 
we must be guided in breeding, and if we are to succeed this truth 
must be the foundation on which we build. 
Scientific breeding consists in throwing the strength of all the in- 
herited tendencies into one channel, concentrating all the ruling 
forces on one objective point, and thus aiming at a certain result. 
If the purpose be to get a draft horse, it then behooves us to mate 
a sire and dam of draft blood that have themselves shown. their 
capability at a draft horse’s work. If we want a running horse, 
reason tells us to go to a running-bred stallion with a running-bred 
mare, and both the stallion and mare should be animals that have 
demonstrated their ability to run fast. If either had a trotting- 
bred sire or dam or a trotting-bred grandsire or grandam, our chances 
of getting a phenomenal runner are much diminished, for then the 
inheritance is not unbroken—it is divided. And the same reason 
that tells us to get a draft horse or a running horse does not desert 
us in breeding the trotter. We should couple a sire or dam of 
trotting inheritance and that are themselves trotters, and we must 
judge of the merits of the prospective colt according to the trotting 
