The Era of High Prices 273 



creases and the disuse of them decreases capacity, 

 why should we not place stress on the transmis- 

 sion of acquired characters? The running gait 

 is in a measure antagonistic to the trotting gait, 

 but it is the fastest of all gaits and has been suc- 

 cessfully used to increase speed in light harness. 

 Messenger, above all horses, taught us the value 

 of the thoroughbred foundation ; and the fame of 

 the trotting department of Woodburn was largely 

 due to the fact that the groundwork of the struc- 

 ture was right. In 1890 Superintendent Lucas 

 Brodhead stated : " The original idea of breeding 

 thoroughbred mares to trotting stallions was to 

 breed fillies for brood mares and thus to build up 

 pedigrees with thoroughbred foundations. These 

 fillies were bred young to our trotting stallions, 

 thus getting two trotting crosses on a thorough- 

 bred foundation. There was no expectation of 

 getting phenomenal speed from the first cross." 

 After you have laid your foundation broad and 

 strong, then breed stout-lunged trotter to trotter, 

 always avoiding weak individuals, and you will 

 find yourself on the road to championship honors. 

 Increased nourishment from generation to gen- 

 eration increases size to a marked degree. There 

 is, however, a limit to all growth, due to germ 



