BREEDING. 437 



fered to accumulate until a wagon-load of rubbish encumbers the soil. 

 To remove such heaps and obstructions from time to time, the mare ano\ 

 a boy might be profitably engaged, doing quite work enough to pay for 

 corn and to recompense for grooming. The necessary handling would 

 prevent that condition of semi-wildness into which too many mares de- 

 generate; while the nature of the labor would not render it profitable 

 for a proprietor of lancj to keep more than one quadruped for breeding, 

 which is the number that most farmers could find leisure to attend to 

 without neglecting other things. 



In the author's opinion, the measures at present pursued in the breed- 

 ing of horses are altogether wrong. They are expensive in their opera- 

 tions and are deceptive in their results. They seem to be regulated by 

 no consideration for the animal, but shaped to the utter convenience of 

 man. The use of "stud farms " or breeding establishments has increased 

 with the degeneracy of blood stock. The horse is by nature too inti- 

 mately associated with its master to be profitably reared in flocks, like to 

 sheep or oxen, which, being unsuited for the active purposes of life, and 

 of duller dispositions than the equine race, can thrive on mere tran- 

 quillity, increasing in the state of semi-domestication. The horse is 

 gifted with a spirit which refuses to vegetate, to fatten, and to naultiply, 

 being content simply with an abundance of provender. "Where success- 

 ful speculation is dependent upon the value of the produce rather than 

 upon the number of foals born, a man may certainly be lycher, who shall 

 in two years obtain one prime birth ; and he may be much poorer, who 

 is annually the owner of various yearlings, none of which shall be suited 

 to the higher purposes of the breed. 



The proper place for the horse is the homestead of the proprietor. 

 It is the servant, and should be the companion of its owner. There is 

 no other living creature which is so entirely blended with man. It is 

 unknown in the wild state, — the flocks of horses spoken of as wild being 

 merely animals which are turned out on uninhabited plains, but which, 

 nevertheless, are strictly private property. The distinguishing mark of 

 wildness — or a tendency to return to a particular color — is lost in this 

 quadruped. Wild sheep and goats are common. Oxen, as an undo- 

 mesticated race, are largely represented. But on the face of the globe 

 the horse — though the most intelligent and the fleetest of its genus — is 

 not to be discovered unassociated with humanity. 



The creature, thus distinguished, merits that the gentleness of civili- 

 zation should characterize its treatment. During the months of gesta- 

 tion, the animal should be fondled and caressed. Any kindness which 

 may be now lavished upon the submissive slave will be certainly repaid 

 hereafter. The hour is approaching when a familiarity with man may 



