1869. 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



309 



BBEEDIIira MAKES. 



J^jar~^ J, o MISTAKE has been more 

 common among farmers, 

 ^ ..i,'^ '' and none attended with 

 more pernicious consequences, than 

 that of bringing colts from animals 

 unfitted to bear them. With all the 

 keenness of observation, and the ex- 

 perience which many horse breeders 

 possess, — and they are usually among our 

 most shrewd citizens — it is surprising that they 

 have not yet discovered the great error of 

 breeding from imperfect dams. 



Every person may see, if he will, that points 

 of physical beauty or defect are constantly 

 transmitted to offspring, both from sire and 

 dam. It is a law of nature that like begets 

 like. If the slightest attention were paid to 

 this rule, it would seem that no one would em- 

 ploy a mare to perpetuate the race which was 

 known to be defective in any of the points 

 which go to make up a good animal. 



The same rule holds good, too, with regard 

 to disposition, temper, or character. These 

 are all important traits ; traits so valuable that 

 comfort, and even life itself, may depend upon 

 them. And yet, because a mare has some one 

 or two rare qualities, she is kept for a breeder, 

 though, she may possess several others, any 

 one of which ought to condemn her for that 

 use. 



If two or three general rules were observed 

 by all breeders, great changes might be 

 wrought in a few years. The first of these is. 

 Never to breed from an old animal, whose 

 body has been injured and its vitality weak- 

 ened by injudicious treatment or by too severe 

 labor. The results which follow these are ob- 

 vious to every observer, both in man and beast. 

 They are all impressed upon the living organ- 

 ism, and can no more be separated from it 

 than breath can from the body and life still be 

 preserved. They are there, whatever they 

 may be, and will be imparted to the oflfspring, 

 just as sure as "like begets like." 



It is possible that cases may exist where it 

 is safe to breed from an old mare. Two of the 

 finest horses that reins were ever drawn over 

 were from a mare nearly thirty years of age, 

 but she was perfect in limb and spirits ; had 

 always been owned by the same person, and 

 fed with as much regularity as the owner's 

 meals were served ; she was never raced at a 



"military muster," or overloaded in any way, 

 and at thirty-three years of age, she and her 

 mate, of about the same age, were not only 

 sound in wind and limb, but were a pair to be 

 proud of when one held the reins over them. 

 A pair of her colts, born after she was twenty- 

 jive, sold, under our eye, for twice as many 

 hundred dollars as other fine horses about them 

 brought ! A moderate old age should not, 

 therefore, absolutely exclude the mare from 

 breeding, if she is right in other particulars. 



The common practice for many years past, 

 and one which has become woven, as it were, 

 into the habits of the people, so that it 

 seems as natural as the breath of life, is, to 

 heep the old mare for breeding, when she is 

 unjitted for service on the road or on the 

 farm! This is where the evil commences. 

 She is a favorite animal, was handsome, spir- 

 ited, and with a power of endurance almost 

 beyond belief. But now she is seventeen 

 years of age, has a spavin, a slight touch of 

 the heaves, and one or two other trifling matters 

 which are a little inconvenient for a working 

 animal, but she will make a good breeder, and 

 about pay her keeping besides ! This is the 

 conclusion arrived at, and thousands of such 

 cases exist among us to-day. 



So the old mare, crippled by too early labor 

 and disabled by disease, is to become the pro- 

 genitor of a race which is to occupy a certain 

 locality, perhaps, for a hundred years ! It Is 

 scarcely possible that her young will not be in- 

 jured before they see the light ; and the strong 

 probability is that each one of them will bear 

 the marks of her imperfections. Some with 

 ringbone, perhaps, or asthma, or spavin, or 

 some lurking disease that had not developed 

 itself in the over-worked and disordered 

 mother. We have seen a yearling colt with a 

 ringbone upon every foot. Well-formed oth- 

 erwise, apparently healthy, eating and drink- 

 ing well, but suffering and utterly worthless. 



The subject has several other points of in- 

 terest, some of which we will speak of in a 

 future article. 



Western Subsoil. — A correspondent of 

 the Journal of Agriculture says, the subsoil 

 of most of our Missouri lands, and also in 

 Southern Illinois where I have had occasion to 

 observe it, is of a very hard, not tenacious, 

 but rather brittle consistency; a stiff clay. 



