CHAPTER X 



THE PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING APPLICABLE TO THE HORSE 



THEORY OF GEXEEATIOX — IN-AND-IN BREEDING — OUT-CROSSING — ADA'ANTAGES AND DIS- 

 ADVANTAGES OF EACH I'LAN— CAUSES OF A " HIT " — IMPORTANCE OF HEALTH AND 

 SOUNDNESS IN BOTH SIRE AND DAM — BEST AGE TO BREED FROM — THE INFLUENCE OF 

 THE SIRE AND DAM RESPECTIVELY — CHOICE OF SIRE AND DAM — SELECTION OF BLOOD 

 IN EACH CLASS OF HORSE— THE KIND OF HORSE MOST PROFITABLE FOR THE BREEDER 

 TO CHOOSE— CONCLUDING REMARKS ON BREEDING. 



THEORY OF GENERATION 



The IMPORTANCE of understanding the principles upon wliicli the breeding 

 of the horse should be conducted is so great that every one who super- 

 intends a stud, however small, should study them carefully. To do this 

 with advantage, he must investigate the changes which take place after 

 the union between the sexes, and must endeavour to ascertain the influence 

 which the sire and dam respectively exert upon their offspring. 



In the year 1855, while engaged in preparing the article on the breeding 

 of the horse in British Rural Sports, I carefully drew up the following 

 epitome of the laws which govern the generation of the mammalia. Since 

 then, the subject has constantly been before me ; but, in spite of the 

 numerous investigations carried on by other observers, I have seen no 

 reason to modify, in any material degree, what I then wrote ; and I shall, 

 therefore, to prevent confusion, insert it entire, what slight additions may 

 be necessary being included within parentheses. 



1. The UNION of the sexes is, in all the higher animals, necessary for 

 reproduction ; the male and female each taking their respective share. 



2. The office op the Male is to secrete the semen in the testes, and 

 emit it into the uterus of the female, (in or near which organ) it comes in 

 contact with the ovum of the female — which remains sterile without it. 



3. The Female forms the ovum in the ovari/, and at regular times, vary- 

 ing in different animals, this descends into the uterus, for the pui'pose of 

 fructification, on receiving the stimulus and addition of the sperm-cell of 

 the semen. 



4. The Semen consists of two portions — the spermatozoa, which have 

 an automatic power of moving from place to place, by which quality it is 

 believed that the semen is carried to the ovum ; and the sperm-cells, which 



161 M 



