THE HORSE BREEDING. 661 



attempted years since to meet the demand for large horses by 

 breeding their small mares to the great Flanders and cart- 

 horses, and others of ponderous size. We are told their result 

 was a dismal failure. 



The Morgan horses were hardy, active, kind, and a most use- 

 ful strain of horses, but after they became noted, farmers bred 

 all sizes of mares to the nearest little Morgan, and to the most 

 ill-proportioned, ill-dispositioned, and ill-bred little horses that 

 happened to be faster than the average farm-horse. One ex- 

 treme follows the other. And now we are on the eve of a rush 

 for big horses. We here remind the farmer of the principles 

 laid down in this work, and ask them to select only well-formed 

 mares, of good size, and cross them with none but horses of 

 excellence in more than one thing. Bigness and fat cover a 

 multitude of worthless qualities. We need more size and bone, 

 and action and pluck, with docility in the stallions. See that 

 they possess these in a high degree or do not use them. 



The value of the stallion is not in the answer to the ques- 

 tion, " How much does he weigh ? " but rather " What can he 

 do ? " " How is he bred ? " 



Choosing the Stallion. Many think the influence of the 

 stallion more important than that of the mare on the foal. 

 Be that as it may, it has been much theorized upon ; yet so 

 long as individual excellence is not confined to either sex and 

 may predominate in either one, we may soon be able to deter- 

 mine which of the two has the most influence in defining the 

 characteristics of the foal. But as the horse in one year may 

 beget scores of colts and the mare drop but one foal, the 

 horse will impress his qualities, good and bad, on the greater 

 number. Hence the importance of having the horse one of 

 marked excellence. 



As long as " every crow thinks her own young one the 

 whitest," we may expect farmers and breeders who have a 

 chance-good colt to think he possesses the qualities that should 

 make a stallion. And as long as the average farmer continues 

 to breed the cheapest foal-getter, so long we may not hope for 

 any marked improvement in the class of stallions kept before 



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