416 THE HORSE OF AMERICA. 



body, from one end of the land to the other, soon knew of and 

 applauded the great enterprise. There had been great enter- 

 prises on similar lines before, and there have been even greater 

 ones since, but Mr. Alexander's Woodburn Farm, of Kentucky, 

 may always be looked upon as the real pioneer in stock breeding 

 on a large and methodical scale, and without limit as to re- 

 sources. A university education in Scotland, with all its train- 

 ing in the refinements of logical distinctions, did not bring to 

 Mr. Alexander a knowledge of the pedigrees of Kentucky horses, 

 nor did it train him in the detection of the tricks of Kentucky 

 horse dealers, and thus as a purchaser of his breeding stock he 

 was looked upon by the "sharps" as a fat goose, ready to be 

 plucked. After these "sharps" had secured their pluckings, 

 Mr. Alexander called in a professional pedigreeist to put the 

 lines of the blood he had purchased in order and print a cata- 

 logue. This "professional" was not a pedigree tracer, for h& 

 never traced anything in his life, but a pedigree maker, and 

 wherever he thought that anything was needed he added it, 

 whether true or not, and it went to the world in that form. This. 

 is more conspicuously true in the department of trotting pedi- 

 grees, as will appear below. Thus the acts of an incapable and 

 dishonest employee were given the indorsement of an honorable- 

 and eminent name; falsehoods were made to appear as truths; 

 counterfeits were put in circulation that are still circulating as- 

 genuine coin, with many people. Under the circumstances, Mr. 

 Alexander could hardly be blamed, for, knowing nothing of such 

 matters of his own knowledge, he employed what he supposed 

 was the best authority then to be found. For my own part, 

 when I came to register the Woodburn stock, I was ready to 

 accept as true whatever I found in the catalogue, believing that 

 Mr. Alexander was incapable of publishing to the world a misrep- 

 resentation. In this estimate of his character I was right, and 

 I have never changed my opinion on that point, but when I came 

 to examine the structure of his catalogue I found there was rot- 

 ten wood all through it. A few examples that have been care- 

 fully investigated will serve to show the value of the work done 

 by the "pedigree maker" for Mr. Alexander. 



Pilot Jr. was a gray horse, foaled 1844, was got by Old Pacing 

 Pilot and attained the distinction of being the head of a well- 

 known family of trotters. He was foaled 1844, bred by Angereau 

 Gray, and owned a number of years by Glasgow & Heinsohn, of 



