BREEDING. 311 



several generations, got rid of; and the good ones of both are 

 occasionally neutralized to a most mortifying extent. Crossing 

 should be pursued with great caution, and the most perfect of 

 the same breed should be selected, but varied by being fre- 

 quently taken from diiferent stocks. 



I must again recur to the very pernicious but frequent prac- 

 tice of breeding on infirm, small, ill-shaped, bad-colored mares, 

 and those positively diseased, or predisposed to disease by he- 

 reditary taint — a practice which can not be too severely cen- 

 sured. I once interrogated a number of gentlemen who had 

 bought, at auction, I believe, several small, ill-shaped, and dis- 

 eased mares, to know wdiy they should have purchased such, 

 when they were certainly able to have got good-sized, well- 

 formed, and sound ones. One of the gentlemen replied that 

 " he knew his mare was unfit for much service, but he got her 

 cheap, and, as he had plenty of grass, he intended to turn her 

 to breed." " My friend," I replied, "your mare is better suited 

 to any other purpose. Suppose you put her to a horse, and raise 

 a colt, you can not expect it, at the age of four or five years, to 

 bring more than fifty or seventy-five dollars ; and, if any hered- 

 itary ailment should descend to it, it will not bring enough to 

 pay the keeping of the dam for the six months she suckled it. 

 Now, suppose you had taken the opposite course, and purchased 

 a large, well-formed, good-blooded mare, free from hereditary 

 ailment, and put her to a judiciously selected stallion, you 

 would have stood a fair chance of raising a colt worth double 

 the price of the former, and you would also have had the j^rofit- 

 able labor of the mare." Two of these gentlemen followed my 

 counsel, disposed of their scrub mares and purchased others, 

 and are norw raising, perhaps, the best horses in their vicinity. 



Another subject of importance, to which I will now call at- 

 tention, is the unpardonable practice of breeding mares at two 

 years old. This hinders the growth and spoils the form of the 

 mare. Thus, before her constitution is matured or her strength 

 developed, she is overladen, which crushes down her joints, 



