BREEDING THE TROTTER 



by Mr. Ed. Geers. I saw Direct Hal first as a 

 two-year-old and liked him. At that time we had 

 about gone the limit on the Mambrino King- 

 Chimes cross and needed an out cross. As some 

 of our mares produced fast pacers I thought 

 Direct Hal would make a good cross and advised 

 Mr. Hamlin to breed some mares to him. To 

 this suggestion he replied, " If I want the use of 

 a stallion I can afford to own him. What do you 

 suppose people would say if I bred to an outside 

 stallion? I don't want to dig my own grave. 

 Let some one else do that." It was some time 

 before Mr. Hamlin could induce Mr. Geers to sell, 

 but the horse finally changed hands for ten thou- 

 sand dollars. At that time his fastest mile had 

 been in 2.17}^ with a half in 1.06. We bred him 

 as a four-year-old and five-year-old, and in the 

 latter year he worked a mile in 2.06 % As a six- 

 year-old he was raced. He was unbeaten down 

 the Grand Circuit and took a record of 2.0414, 

 winning twenty-six thousand five hundred dollars. 

 At one time Direct Hal could have been sold 

 for forty thousand dollars. 



THE FIRST CATALOGUE. 



The Village Farm catalogues record many of 

 Mr. Hamlin's views on the breeding problem. 



The first catalogue of Village Farm was issued 

 in 1884. It was my first experience as a catalogue 

 compiler and I never worked so hard on anything 

 in my life. At that time the facilities for com- 

 piling catalogues were not what they now are and 



39 



