144 



BREEDING. 



To all persons engaged in raising horses, the sub- 

 ject of breeding is of tVi fir . importance ; for unless 

 the laws which govern reproduction be, to some 

 extent, understood and acted upon, all efforts to im- 

 prove existing stocks, or to produce horses for par- 

 ticular kinds of service, must depend on chance, and 

 of course, in most cases prove unsatisfactory. The 

 great law of reproduction, that "like begets like," 

 obtains, with universal sway, both in the animal and 

 vegetable kingdoms of nature. But every circum- 

 stance, however trifling, affecting either the male or 

 the female, will have a corresponding influence on 

 the offspring. Every farmer knows how mysterious- 

 ly his genuine white wheat becomes degenerated, 

 when his neighbors pay no attention to keeping a 

 good stock of wheat. And this degeneracy is only 

 the result of the fine dust from the bloom (called 

 pollen) being carried by the wind from their fields 

 to his. As a general rule, nature endeavors to im- 

 press the offspring with the type " of both parents ; 

 and we usually find a more or less perfect blending 

 .of the qualities of both in the offspring, with a de- 

 cided prominence of those qualities peculiar to only 

 one of the parents. 



