BREEDING THE TROTTER 



I prefer breeding her as a three-year-old or four- 

 year-old. 



INBREEDING. 



A subject of interest to many brood-mare 

 owners is that of inbreeding. It has been said 

 that inbreeding concentrates the vices and weak- 

 ens the individual. This, in my judgment, is not 

 true if a careful selection of individuals is made. 



For example, I once knew a lawyer named 

 James Miller, in whom considerable sporting 

 blood flowed. On returning from a visit to Eng- 

 land he brought me a setting of game chicken's 

 eggs which he had secured from a nobleman 

 friend of his. I bred these fowls in and in for 

 sixteen years. They always bred true to feather 

 although not always to size. At the end of six- 

 teen years I had as good a lot of fowls as from the 

 first hatching. I was always careful, however, 

 to mate only the very best individuals. 



The American trotter is an example of a race 

 founded by inbreeding. An inbreeding of Mes- 

 senger blood produced Rysdyk's Hambletonian 

 and Mambrino Chief, founders of our two prin- 

 cipal trotting families. The trotter of to-day is 

 the result of inbreeding these two strains with out- 

 crosses to Pilot Jr., thoroughbred, Clay and 

 Morgan. 



I do not agree with a foreign authority that the 

 American trotter is too highly inbred. The trot- 

 ting family has reached its present perfection 

 through inbreeding and would have been still 



