LITE STOCK. 393 



The passion for raising fast trotters, — a passion which has 

 been stimulated by very high prices, and which is likely to 

 continue and. to increase, — has led to a quite general adoption 

 of the practice of breeding to fast-trotting .stallions. And there 

 is no doubt that this practice frequently results in the production 

 of fast trotters ; often enough, perhaps, to make it a tempt- 

 ing lottery, — but a lottery it certainly is, for while the few fast 

 trotters produced are of exceptional value, a large majority of 

 the " get " have decided defects, which reduce them below the 

 average of good horses. Even in raising horses for the trotting 

 turf, I should adhere in my own practice very strictly to the rule 

 which has been established by the origin of the trotting-horse 

 himself, — that is, to get the largest amount of blood on the side of 

 the sire. 



Almost without exception, every really distinguished trotting 

 horse in the country traces back, largely on the side of the sire, to 

 the thoroughbred English race-horse, which is the only source of 

 what is now known among English and American breeders as 

 " blood ;" and while the high, free action which fast trotting re- 

 quires has been introduced very considerably through cold-blooded 

 mares, and occasionally through cold-blooded horses, it is only 

 by a combination of this action with the best qualities of " blood " 

 that the best results may be confidently sought. Therefore, 

 the opinion is a very well-established one, that, in all systematic 

 breeding, whether for the turf or for any other purposes, whatever 

 the mare may be, the sire should be a thoroughbred horse ; and in 

 making this statement I by no means confine it to the production 

 of horses for fast work or for pleasure-driving, for I believe that 

 for every use, except, possibly, the slow draft of very heavy loads 

 or city trucks, it is more economical for the teamster and for the 

 farmer himself to have a large admixture of thorough-blood in 

 the stock. 



As a case in point, I would state that I recently employed a 

 neighbor to do some plowing for me ; his team consisted of a 

 pair of oxen and a horse on the lead. The horse was of only 

 average size, but I observed from a distance that there was a 



