396 HANDT-BOOK OF HUSBANDEY. 



"gree of excellence in a horse of any stamp or style, and not one 

 " iota less for the animal which draws the load, or breaks the glebe, 

 " than for the riding-horse or the pleasure-traveler before light 

 " vehicles. But it has of late become the fashion with some parties 

 " to undervalue the advantages of speed, and to deny its utility for 

 ''other purposes than for those of mere amusement ;' and as a 

 " corollary from this assumption, to disparage the effect and deny 

 '■'• the advantage of blood, by which is meant descent, through the 

 '' American or English race-horse, from the Oriental blood of the 

 " desert, whether Arabian, Barb, Turk, Persian, or Syrian, or a 

 '' combination of two or more, or all of the five. 



" The horse which can plow an acre while another is plowing 

 '' half an acre, or that which can carry a load of passengers ten miles 

 " while another is going five, independent of all considerations of 

 " amusement, taste, or what is generally called fancy, is absolutely 

 "worth twice as much to his owner as the other. 



" Now the question for the breeder is simply this : By what 

 " means is this result to be obtained ? The reply is, by getting the 

 "greatest possible amount of pure blood compatible with size, 

 " weight, and power, according to the purpose for which he intends 

 *' to raise stock, into the animal bred. For not only is it not true 

 "that speed alone is the only good thing derivable from blood, but 

 " something very nearly the reverse is true. It is very nearly the 

 " least good thing. That which the blood-horse does possess is a 

 " degree of strength in his bones, sinews, and frame at large, utterly 

 " out of proportion to the size or apparent strength of that frame. 

 " The texture, the form, and the symmetry of the bones, — all, in 

 " the same bulk and volume, — possess double, or nearer fourfold, 

 " the elements of resistance and endurance in the blood-horse that 

 " they do in the cold-blooded cart-horse. The difference in the 

 " form and texture of the sinews and muscles, and in the inferior 

 *' tendency to form flabby, useless flesh, is still more in favor of the 

 " blood-horse. Beyond this, the internal anatomical construction 

 " of his respiratory organs, of his arterial and venous system, of his 

 " nervous system, — in a word, of his constitution generally, — is cal- 

 " culated to give him what he possesses, greater vital power, greater 



