THE STALLIOX. 139 



Sir Shafto Adair was so kind as to send me, in 

 March, 1860, a copy of the pamphlet on " The Breed- 

 ing of Domestic Animals," which was written hj the 

 late eminent surgeon, Mr. Cline of London. ^' AVhen 

 the male," says Mr. Cline, " is much larger than the 

 female, the offspring is generally of an imperfect form. 

 If the female be proportionally larger than the male, 

 the offspring is of an improved form. . . . "When 

 it became the fashion in London to drive large bay 

 horses, the fanners in Yorkshire put their mares to 

 much larger stallions than usual, and thus did infinite 

 mischief to their breed, by producing a race of small- 

 chested, long-legged, large-boned, worthless animals." 



I cannot agi*ee with Mr. Cline in supposing that the 

 female should have a proportional excess of size over 

 the male, because this would be in opposition to the 

 rule of nature. If we look over all creation, we will 

 find the male decidedly preponderating in size over the 

 female ; and this should prevent us, in making our se- 

 lections, from endeavom-ing to bring them both as near 

 as possible to the same dimensions. But I do most 

 heartily concm* in the idea, that we should never at- 

 tempt to rectify the diminutive size on the part of the 

 dam, by putting her to an overgrown brute of a sire, 

 after the example of the different breeders which are 

 animadverted on in Mr. Cline's work. This plan 



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