THE HORSE BREEDING. 541 



Among sheep, the Shropshire, the Oxford and South-downs, and 

 Hampshire-downs ; then come the long-wools, the Cotswold, 

 Lincolns and Leicester, etc. In every class of domestic ani- 

 mals they seem to recognize the value of breeding for a 

 special purpose, and breeding in line, until the type wanted is 

 obtained. 



Breeding for Increased Size. As a rule the farmer's 

 horses in America are too small. This arises from two great 

 and leading causes. First is the habit of allowing the young 

 things to shift for themselves ; second, the want of any uniform 

 effort to wands increase of size by judicious crosses. When 

 an occasional farmer attempts to breed for increased size, we 

 find him taking his little, light-boned mares, to some ponderous 

 beast, noted for his size and avoirdupois only. His owner's 

 chief card is the horse weighs so many hundreds more than a 

 ton. On this point of increasing size, consider of what possible 

 use can be a vast carcass on a weak set of limbs, deficient in 

 quality and shape of bone. 



Increase Size Gradually. There is no safety in such 

 violent crosses. Nature works gradually in her developments. 

 If we would increase the size of our farm-horses, and we have 

 on hand mares that weigh from one thousand to eleven hundrod, 

 we should ' select not the largest specimens of some of the 

 heavier draft breeds, but rather well formed, powerfully and 

 uniformly made horses, with strong bone, well-knit joints, and 

 the best of feet. On such legs we may lay an increased carcass 

 without fear of spavin and corbs, and puffed joints. The next 

 cross may be to a larger horse with like characteristics of form, 

 bone, and joints. The crossing of lightly built mares on these 

 enormously large, clumsy horses has been prolific of a large per 

 cent of ill-shaped and blemished colts and horses, abounding 

 in bog-spavin, thorough-pin, crooked or clubbed feet. The in- 

 creased carcass must be well supported by a like increase of 

 strength in limb, or we shall have an ungainly, spongy, and 

 clumsy lot of colts. 



The increase of size may be reached first by breeding blocky, 

 squarely built, strong mares that are good sucklers, to the larger 



