748 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



and qualities of both parents. It is generally thought although individual cases differ, 

 according to different circumstances that in the majority of cases, the male parent gives 

 size and form to the bones and muscles generally, while the female parent influences the 

 nervous system, and frequently the form of the head and adjacent portions of the body. W. 

 C. Spooner, a leading English authority, says, respecting this opinion, in the Journal of the 

 Royal Agricultural Society : 



&quot;The influence of male and female parent is not capricious, but yet not always alike; in 

 the majority of instances the male parent gives the size and external shape of the offspring 

 (particularly the back and hind-quarters), while the female influences the constitutional, the 

 nervous system, and often the head and fore-quarters. That this combination which may 

 be more of a mechanical mixture than a chemical union by no means implies such an equal 

 division of influence, as the mingling of two fluids in which case the offspring would be 

 unlike either parent, but a juste milieu between the two, and there could be no handing down 

 of type from one generation to another it is rather such a fusion of two bodies into one, 

 that both defects and high qualifications are passed on from parent to offspring with a sort of 

 regular irregularity resembling the waves of the sea, each parent having the remarkable 

 power of propagating ancestral peculiarities, though latent in itself.&quot; 



Another English authority, the author of &quot;Breeding, Rearing, Feeding, and General 

 Management of Farm-Horses,&quot; says: 



&quot; Instances have come under the notice of the writer where a tribe of horses have been 

 bred in one family for many generations, the mares of which all inherited from the female 

 ancestors the bad habit of kicking in the yoke; and although crossed with very docile sires, the 

 same propensity and nervous temperament was transmitted from one generation to another; 

 others again preserve the unwelcome and annoying habit of being shy pullers; and others, again, 

 where the mares are hot-tempered, tearing workers, but deficient in stamina or staying power. 

 Owners sometimes breed from a mare that is hot-tempered, or a kicker, to sober her down a 

 bit. They invariably succeed in perpetuating a breed which should be allowed to become 

 extinct. The importance, therefore, of selecting a quiet-dispositioned mare of sound consti 

 tution for breeding purposes is apparent. By sober-tempered, a sluggish animal is not meant,. 

 activity being very essential in a brood mare, especially in her walk, as this is the most 

 important pace for farm work. Either meeting you or leaving you, a horse should go square ; 

 the fore action should be straightforward, the fore-feet should not be thrown out sideways, as 

 it were. It is also necessary that a farm -horse should be able to acquit itself well in a trot; 

 and the words of an enthusiastic Scotchman when once describing a brood mare can be 

 repeated, when he said, Her very step had music in t. &quot; 



The rule previously recognized does not hold true in all cases, since individuals differ so 

 greatly with respect to the power of transmitting their qualities to their progeny. Murray 

 says in this connection: 



&quot; The instances in which the foal does not follow the sire are too numerous for us to allow 

 that the Arabian maxim is worthy of being regarded as a law. Even a casual inspection of 

 my own stables, or the stables of any breeder, would cause a grave suspicion to arise in any 

 thoughtful mind touching the Eastern adage. I have, for instance, in my stables, dams 

 whose foals invariably resemble the sire in size, shape, color, style of going, and even in tern- 

 perament; and these mares are valued by me as almost beyond price, because of this pecu 

 liarity. 7 know beforehand what I shall get. On the other hand, I have two other mares whose 

 colts invariably resemble themselves, or some one of their parental ancestors. So true is this, 

 that I can calculate before the foal appears what he will not be, although I may not easily tell 

 what he will be. Such are the facts in my own stables ; and they harmonize perfectly with 

 the results of observation in many other breeding establishments. The law plainly suggested 

 by inference from these facts is this, that the animal with the strongest vitality marks the foal. 



