THE NEW EARTH 



provement and enlargement, — improvement of 

 native stock by breeding and selection and the 

 constant testing of new strains of blood, to see 

 whether or not they may be introduced from 

 foreign countries with success ; enlargement by 

 constantly increasing the number of animals, 

 to meet a demand which has increased more 

 rapidly than the supply. 



This picture rises in memory: 



Overhead the blue sky, the air crisp with 

 autumn frosts ; a crowd of country people 

 thronging the paddock at the county fair, all 

 interest lost, for the moment, in the many fas- 

 cinating features of the fair; far down the 

 green a proud groom advancing leading an 

 enormous Percheron stallion, a dark mottled- 

 gray, be-ribboned in many contests, while be- 

 hind him come many other grooms, each at 

 the head of a noble animal, each horse in turn 

 seeming more worthy of applause than his 

 predecessor. Out in front of the throng, watch- 

 ing warily every movement of the great ani- 

 mals, stands a white-haired, white-bearded old 

 man, type of the line of southern gentlemen 

 from whence he sprang, receiving, with fine 

 pride in his eye, the tumultuous applause that 



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