THE STALLION AND BROOD MARE. 3ft 



of the staUion — anonymously written by some gentle- 

 man who has evidently observed the precaution too 

 often neglected ; to understand his subject, before he 

 oegan to speak upon it. It is taken from the " Farmers' 

 Library," for which it was written, and where, it 

 may be needless to say, such WTiters wdll ahvays be truly 

 t.elcome. As against the assertion of Surgeon Cline, 

 with whom the author of this Essay agrees as to the pre- 

 dominant influence of the male in characterizing the 

 progeny, we have, in another place, arrayed the opinion 

 of Mr. Johnson, it is but fair here to adduce, in support 

 of the affirmative side of the proposition, the all-pow^er- 

 ful testimony of Mr. Apperly, who says : <« Virgil, in 

 his excellent remarks on breeding Horses, tells those of 

 his readers who wish to gain prizes to look at the dam ; 

 and until of very late years, it was the prevailing opinion 

 of Englishmen that in breeding a racer the mare is more 

 essential than the Horse, in the production of him in his 

 highest form ; and we know it to have been the notion 

 entertained by the late Earl of Grosvenor — the most ex- 

 tensive though not perhaps the most successful breeder 

 of thorough-bred stock that England ever saw. The 

 truth of this supposition, however, has not been confirmed 

 by the experience of the last half century, and much 

 more dependence is now placed on the stallion than on 

 the mare. The racing calendar, indeed, clearly proves 

 the fact. 



" Notwithstanding the prodigious number of very highly 

 bred and equally good mares that are every year put to 

 the horse, it is from such as are put to our very best 

 stallions that the great winners are produced. This can 

 in no other way be accounted for than by such horses 

 having the faculty of imparting to their progeny th^- 

 peculiar external and internal formation absolutely essen- 

 Ual to the first-rate race-horse ; or, if the tp.rm <■ blooa' 



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