94 THE PERFECT HORSE. 



med, and three other streams that come pouring in 

 like a torrent from imported Messenger ; and yet the 

 Morgan blood is royal enough to contend at odds 

 against royalty, and takes the six streams of imported 

 blood, mingles it with itself, and rolls along as calmly 

 and as true to itself as before. I trust I am not opin- 

 ionated; but I would ask. What other horse, imported 

 or home-bred, has ever founded a family able to per- 

 petuate its characteristics, and defend itself against the 

 intrusion of foreign blood, as has the Morgan? Where 

 is the imported Messenger type invariably true to itself? 

 Where is imported Diomed, as discerned in his descend- 

 ants ? Where is imported Bashaw, out of whose trunk 

 the Clay branches have all sprung? Where is any 

 horse, or family of horses, whose type of outward con- 

 formation and temperament even have survived seventy 

 years of outcrossing and admixture ? The horse and 

 family do not live, I reply. The Morgan, and the 

 Morgan alone, is worthy to stand upon the pedestal in 

 answer to such an interrogation. Whatever else he 

 lacked, neither he nor his descendants lacked or lack 

 the power to reproduce themselves. It is for this 

 reason that I give it as my deliberate opinion, that, 

 other things being equal, the stallion with the largest 

 amount of Morgan blood in his veins will prove the 

 best stock-horse. It is undoubtedly to the presence 

 of this blood in their veins that Fearnaught, Ethan 

 Allen and his son Lambert, Taggart's.Abdallah and his 

 descendants, and the Morrills of Vermont, are able to mark 



