HOW THE TROTTING HORSE IS BRED. 483 



pie. The minister and the lawyer evidently had always heard 

 the term "thoroughbred" applied to what men considered the 

 best, and when they were discussing their favorites which they 

 considered the best, they naturally called them "thoroughbreds" 

 without knowing what they were saying. This was more than 

 twenty years ago, and was really the popular conception of the 

 meaning of the term at that time. Not one man in a thousand 

 then knew that the term had any other meaning than the in- 

 dividual superiority of the animal, and that it applied only to the 

 pedigree, or concentration of blood in the veins of the animal, 

 was quite foreign to the popular conception. After the found- 

 ing of Wallace's Monthly the light began to dawn on this as well 

 as on many other questions, and to-day the true meaning of the 

 term is very generally understood. 



To constitute a "thoroughbred" of whatever variety or species 

 the animal must possess a certain number of uncontaminated 

 crosses of his own breed, and this applies to all kinds of domestic 

 animals that are bred for special uses or qualities. There is no 

 law determining the number of these uncontaminated crosses, 

 except the law of usage. The cattle men, I think, were the first 

 to establish a rule on this subject, in this country, and they did 

 it on enlightened and scientific principles. It was found in ex- 

 perience that the danger of atavism, or throwing back to some 

 undesirable ancestor, was diminished in the ratio of the number 

 of pure crosses through which the animal was descended. At 

 two crosses it was found that there were many reversions to some 

 type outside of the breed; at three crosses there were not so 

 many; at four there were very few, and at five reversions had 

 practically disappeared. While some required another cross the 

 majority drove the stake at the fifth generation, proclaiming 

 thereby that an animal bred through five uncontaminated gen- 

 erations of ancestors was free from the dangers of reversion, and 

 hence was "thoroughly bred." This is the formula and this is 

 the principle, and it applies with equal propriety to the colt, the 

 calf, the pig, the puppy, the chick, or the birdling. In this 

 phrase "thoroughly bred" we have the origin, reason and mean- 

 ing of the term "thoroughbred." The formula of this rule, if 

 tabulated, would show two parents: next, four grandparents; 

 next eight great-grandparents; next sixteen ancestors and next 

 thirty-two, making in all sixty-two ancestors, all of which must 

 be "thoroughly bred." This rule of breeding is not limited to 



