INTRODUCTION. 11 



but, whatever the motive, it was most admirably calculated 

 to deceive the uninformed and unwary. 



What quantity of good blood should a horse possess, in 

 order to entitle him to be classified in the above third 

 distinction of thoroughbreds ? Tn answering this question, 

 notwithstanding the exercise of great circumspection and 

 politeness, some gentlemen' s toes will be in the way. If it 

 were possible to submit the question to the intelligent 

 breeders and admirers of the thoroughbred horse, as to 

 what portion of good blood an animal should possess in 

 order to entitle him to classification among thoroughbreds, 

 there would not be a vote in the whole land to admit a half 

 or three-quarter bred. 



For the next cross seven-eighths there would be a few 

 votes, perhaps ten in a thousand. Now, to lumber up a 

 Stud Book with such grades of animals, would not only be 

 derogatory to the noble lineage of the four-mile courser, but 

 would be formally acknowledging that that lineage was 

 comparatively valueless, and the book itself would be but 

 little better than a nuisance. For the fourth cross fifteen- 

 sixteenths there would be many votes ; and for the fifth 

 thirty-one thirty- seconds there would probably be a 

 majority, yet many would be tenacious for more blood. 

 But, at the sixth cross, in which there would be but one part 

 of cold to sixty-three of warm blood, not many would 

 complain. If this estimate of the views of generations of 

 intelligent and observant breeders be correct, the proper 

 point of division is at the fifth or sixth cross.. Without any 

 purpose of compromising between these two crosses, but 

 from the firm conviction that, while mares of five crosses 

 often produce winners, horses of the same number seldom 

 or never get them, I have required as a rule five crosses 

 for mares and six for horses, since 1820 with some few 



