620 THE AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 



speed may be expected when trotting mares are bred to trotting 

 stallions. It should not be disregarded that we already have 

 trotting families quite equal to thorough-breds in spirit and bot- 

 tom ; and though these may have been inherited from a thorough- 

 bred ancestry, that is not a reason why we should breed again to 

 thorough-breds and risk the loss of the trotting quality. 



The effect on offspring of breeding blood relations together, 

 called breeding in-and-in, is a matter that has received much atten- 

 tion from breeders and physiologists; and these two classes of 

 observers have arrived at somewhat different conclusions about it, 

 the physiologists condemning the practice among human beings, 

 the breeders approving of it among domestic stock. As the same 

 laws govern all nature, this difference of opinion must grow out of 

 an imperfect knowledge of the law, and might be reconciled by a 

 more comprehensive view of the facts relating to the subject. 



When blood-relations intermarry, the children are often imper- 

 fect, being idiotic, or blind, or scrofulous; or if they escape these 

 and a host of other ills that in-bred flesh is heir to, they are sel- 

 dom so healthy and strong in mind and body as their parents were. 



This is too well known to admit of a doubt, though, happily, 

 the evil consequences of such intermarriages are not always notice- 

 able in such unpleasant forms. On the other hand, many good 

 horses have been the result of close in-and-in breeding. The evils 

 of close breeding of blood relations in the human family are 

 chiefly mental, idiocy and eccentricity of character being the 

 most frequent results. In the lower animals the mental traits are 

 so inconspicuous as compared to the physical, that departures from 

 the healthy mental standard would not be much noticed if the 

 physical development were good. This is probably a reason why 

 we see less evil attend the practice among horses. 



In the wild state a stallion keeps a herd of mares together by 

 his superior strength and courage, and drives away all rivals. He 

 may hold this position for several years, and must have foals by 

 his own daughters and grand-daughters. This would therefore 

 seem to not be a great violation of natural law in the case of 

 horses. In domestication we find it safer to breed mares to their 

 sires or grand-sires than to their sons or grand-sons. When mares 

 have been bred to their male descendants deformity has been the 

 result in several instances within the knowledge of the writer. In 

 one case a mare was bred to her great-grand-son, and the resulting 

 filly had a crooked mouth. But it is a noteworthy fact that Gold- 

 smith Maid was out of a mare that was bred to a son of her half- 

 brother. In other words, the Maid's sire was a half nephew of 

 her dam, Mambrino Gift (2 m. 20 s.) was bred in the same way. 

 Mares have been bred to their sires and grand-sires without any 



