540 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



horses. If the mare is too mean to work or broken down in 

 constitution, she will yet produce a colt, perhaps, and is bred to 

 the nearest and cheapest horse, regardless of qualities or breed- 

 ing. The result is, we farmers have done very little for the 

 improvement of our horses. Horsemen must have the credit of 

 bringing to us good horses and pressing us to use them. Even 

 in this accidental way we find in some districts that occasion- 

 ally a horse of rare excellence as a foal-getter has caused a 

 marked improvement in the common stock of a neighborhood. 

 Iron's Cadmus is one of this kind, that made so much improve- 

 ment in the horses of Warren and Butler Counties that the 

 value of his service to these counties can not be estimated. 

 But he was not only an exceptionally good horse, but one of 

 high breeding. On the common farm mares he produced an ex- 

 cellent class of general-purpose horses. 



But that is not enough. To insure highest results we must 

 continue from year to year and generation to generation, breed- 

 ing from and to the best specimens of the class that we are 

 breeding for. If we wish trotters we must not use the draft- 

 stallions. If we want coach-horses we must not breed to mus- 

 tangs. If there be any force in the law "like produces like" 

 we must not hope for an accidental setting aside of its power in 

 our favor when we breed a mongrel to a scrub, and hope for a 

 winner on the turf. The farmers need speedily to correct their 

 views on this matter of breeding, if they would improve their 

 stock of horses. 



English Farmers More Successful. The English 

 breeders and farmers have made greater progress in the art of 

 breeding domestic animals than have we in America, as is shown 

 by their numerous and well-defined breeds of animals. For ex- 

 ample, among their horses we note the thorough-bred; then by 

 use of heavy, large, bony thorough-breds on good, strong, fairly 

 well-bred mares, we see them producing their hunters, and 

 coachers and cobs and nags. Then in some districts we find 

 them fixing and developing such well-defined types of animals 

 as the Shire draft, the Black cart, and Cleveland bay. Among 

 cattle they have the short-horn, the Devon, the Hereford. 



