THE HORSE BREEDING. 539 



with such amazing uniformity. The unskillful breeder suspects 

 the spot as telling of impure blood. This may be true or not. 

 The reputation of the breeder and a study of his pedigrees will 

 settle that, and show that the spot is but a case of atavism. 

 The Berkshires of forty years ago had these rusty or sandy 

 spots, and the expert to-day knows that he may occasionally 

 have a pig with a rusty spot or even a lop-ear, as had the 

 ancient Berkshire. But skillful breeding reduces the power 

 or tendency to atavism, to such a degree that in the best 

 families of this breed we expect confidently pigs of a stand- 

 ard color. 



The Law Essential to Improvement. This law of 

 breeding back has its advantages. In fact, it is essential to all 

 improvement. If there were no tendency to breed back to the 

 form, color, or qualities of ancestors, where could we have found 

 the thousands of horses marked with Messenger traits. Where 

 and how could we have collected and concentrated the Mam- 

 bririo blood, and the Hambletonian among trotters, until to-day 

 we have families whose prominent characteristics are those of 

 their great ancestors. They all excel as trotters. 



Breed for a Special Purpose. In 1818 there was only 

 one horse known that could trot a mile in three minutes, and 

 that was Boston Blue. In the run of fifty years we have pro- 

 duced thousands of horses that could trot as fast as Boston 

 Blue, and two hundred and forty-five that could trot better than 

 2.30. In ten years more, by 1878, we had one thousand and 

 twenty-five that could trot better than 2.30, and over five hun- 

 dred horses that trotted below 2.25, and some as low as 2.15. 

 By 1888 we may confidently expect to see two thousand beat 

 2.25, and some go as low as 2.05. Notwithstanding at this 

 writing in 1884, Maud S. has come down to 2.101. and Jay-Eye- 

 See close after her. And all this has been done by breeding 

 for a special purpose. The best bred trotters have produced 

 the greatest number of winning horses, just as is true of the 

 English race-horses cited by Stonehenge. 



American Farmers Not Careful Enough. Farmers 

 generally ignore the question of breeding and blood of their 



