490 THE HORSE. 



races than any other horse in America. But the probability is 

 strong that Rysdyk will not be very speedy, though he will proba- 

 bly have good bottom, and still stronger that his colts out of Flore 

 will not equal their celebrated dam. 



Flora Temple's pedigree is not very well known, but this much 

 appears to be reliable : Her sire was One-Eyed Kentucky Hun- 

 ter, he by Kentucky Hunter, the sire of the famous pacer Oneida 

 Chief. Her dam, Madam Temple, was by a spotted horse called 

 an Arabian, though he probably was not. That her trotting way 

 inherited from her sire's side is quite certain, and her dam also 

 may have added something, as she afterward produced a very good 

 trotter, Pilot Temple, but he was by a very good horse, Alexan- 

 der's Pilot, Jr. Though Flora Temple has enough in her pedigree ; 

 so far as known, to account for her trotting, the probability of 

 speed in her colts by Rysdyk is not very great. It is a pity she 

 would not breed to Mambrino Pilot, that any deficiency in her own 

 pedigree might have been made up by his extraordinary good 

 breeding. The portrait of Flora Temple and her colt, facing the 

 title page, is from a photograph, and gives a very good idea of 

 them as they appear in their winter coats. 



The effect on offspring of breeding blood relations together, 

 called breeding in-and-in, is a matter that has received much atten- 

 tion from breeders and physiologists; and these two classes of 

 observers have arrived at somewhat different conclusions about it ; 

 the physiologists condemning the practice among human beings, 

 the breeders approving of it among domestic stock. As the same 

 laws govern all nature, this difference of opinion must grow out of 

 an imperfect knowledge of the law, and might be reconciled by a 

 more comprehensive view of the facts relating to the subject. 



When blood-relations intermarry, the children are often imper- 

 fect, being idiotic, or blind, or scrofulous ; or if they escape these 

 and a host of other ills that in-bred flesh is heir to, they are sel- 

 dom so healthy and strong in mind and body as their parents were. 



This is too well known to admit of a doubt, though, happily, 

 the evil consequences of such intermarriages are not always notice- 

 able in such unpleasant forms. On the other hand, many good 

 horses have been the result of close in-and-in breeding. By refer- 

 ring to the pedigree of Rysdyk's Hambletonian, Table I., it will 

 be seen that Abdallah was by Mambrino, out of his half-sister ; 

 Hambletonian was by Messenger, out of one of his own daugh- 

 ters; and One-Eye was by in-bred Hambletonian, out of his half- 

 sister. Then comes one out-cross with Bellfounder, and again the 

 offspring of that cross, the Charles Kent Mare, is bred to in- 

 bred Abdallah of the same stock. The result was a stallion that 

 has for several years stood at the head of the list of trotting foal 

 getters. 



