LADY SUFFOLK. 



67 



sent superior stock, to foreign crosses. Most 

 frequently to Barbs, (as the Godolphin.) which is 

 known to be a race of comparatively small 

 horses, with thin skin, fine hard bone, and a 

 great share of muscle. 



Many are at a loss to account for the fact, that 

 English horses have not been benefited by 

 recent crosses with Arabian stallions, but to us 

 n seems apparent, that the reason why the 

 DarUy Arabian, and after him the yet more 

 celebrated Barb, Godolphin, contributed more 

 decidedly than any Arabians have done since, 

 to tlie improvement of their stock, is, tliat tliey 

 were imported at the very juncture when the 

 English stock was in a condition to need a cross, 

 that should impart more muscle and harder 

 bone, with better wind ; while it should dimin- 

 ish tlie size and weight of the carcass, which 

 had been made too heavy and inert, by repeated 

 rccour.se to Flemish and German blood. On 

 this point Professor Cliiie is quite explicit : " the 

 sreat improvement of the breed of horses in 

 England, arose from crossing witli those dimin- 

 nf.ive stallions, Barbs and Arabians: and the 

 introduction of Flanders Mares into this country 

 was the source of improvement in the breed of 

 cart horses : when it became the fashion in Lon- 

 don to drive large bay horses, the Armors in 

 Yorkshire put their mares to much larger 

 stallions than usual, and thus did infinite mischief 

 to their breed, by producing a race of small 

 chested, long-legged, large-boned, worthless 

 animals." 



The ill effects here described by the distin- 

 guished Professor, was the result in our ov\-n 

 country, of a large " Cleveland bay "' stallion, 

 imported by the late Robert Pattison of Mary- 

 land, and sent into Frederick county of that 

 State. His j-ounger brother, a gentleman of 

 fortune by inheritance, but a fanner by choice, 

 and of uncommon sagacity and judgment, would 

 have foreseen the result of such a cross. No- 

 where so systematically as on his estate, h.ave 

 we ever seen so fully carried out and completelj' 

 illustrated, this important principle in breeding 

 as already quoted from Professor Cline, that " to 

 produce the most perfect formed animal, abund- 

 ant nourishment is necessary from the earliest 

 period of its existence until its gi-owth is com- 

 plete." So thoroughly is Mr. P. impressed, too, 

 with the expediency of getting as much blood- 

 as you can into the horse of all work, consist- 

 ently with the weight w-hich is indispensable 

 for slow and heavy draught, that he seeks to 

 have as much of it as can be th^•o^vn into his 

 ploxo and wagon horses. Were the question 

 doubtful, tlie ai-gumeut must preponderate vihich 

 is supported by the practice and exporience 

 of an agriculturist, rare in all countries, who 

 is ready with his reason for every thing he does, 

 and " no mistake at that." | 



1175) 



Having accomplished their purposes by en- 

 larging the lungs, and 'impro\'ing the conform- 

 ation of their species, giving more muscle in 

 proportion to the mass of flesh to be canied, the 

 same stallions, from Arabia and Barbary, could 

 they rise PhoBnix-like from their ashes, could, 

 probably, not now be employed with the same 

 beneficial effect in England. 



English writers, and among tliem Mr. Aperly, 

 (Nimrod,) one of the most voluminous and ac- 

 complished, on field sports, admits the superior- 

 ity of tlie American Trotter, and as that is 

 perhaps the only sort of animal, or department, 

 in which we can lay claim to excellence over 

 Jolm BuU, in any of tlie properties which give 

 value to domestic animals ; and as, moreover, 

 speed in that gait, combined with lasfing7iess, 

 is a desideratum in horc-es destined as well for 

 public and private coaches, as for all kinds of 

 light harness, and quick ti-avehng, it becomes 

 an interesting inquiry, both to amateurs of the 

 Horse, and to practical fanners, — whence has 

 resulted the superiority asserted for, and con- 

 ceded to the American Trotting Horse? Is it 

 that we possess a particular strain of horses not 

 to be found in other counhies, not thorough-bred, 

 but yet of a specific breed, which has been found 

 or made in America, and which may be kept 

 separate and distinct from all others, tlie root 

 whereof is not necessarily to be looked for, like 

 that of our thorough-bred stock, in the English 

 Stiid-Book, or in the blood of some Eastern an- 

 cestor — a breed to which, iu a word, recourse 

 maybe had as a stock of horses sui generis, and 

 one that may be rehed upon to supph" fast goers 

 iu this pace ? Or is it that we owe the number 

 thai can go their mile under 2.40, to the higher 

 estimate which is placed on excellence iu that 

 way, in this country ; and to die greater pains 

 taken and skill exercised in educating and 

 training horses to go ahead in the ti-ot ? We 

 confess that reflection and aO die lights we pos- 

 sess, lead us to the adoption of this latter theory. 



There are various reasons why this propeity 

 in the horse should be more attended to in this, 

 than perhaps auj- other countiy. May it not be 

 referred in some measui-e, to our political mstitu- 

 tions, as we have already seen, in tlie view which 

 has been taken [in Skinner and Youatt on the 

 horse] of the progi-essive improvement of 

 horses in England, how their qualities have, 

 from time to time, been influenced and modified 

 by their field-sports, the state of their roads, the 

 fonn of their coaches, and changes in their war- 

 like and agricultural habits and implements? 

 Under the effect of our political institutions, 

 which create frequent division of estates, it is 

 next to impossible tliat there should exist in 

 America a class of men with sufficient and en- 

 during wealth, either hereditary or acquireil, to 

 maintain the costly and magnificent airaiige- 



