44 Cross Country with Horse and Hound 



are undoubtedly descendants of one common stock. From 

 the Shetland pony of three hundredweight to the mammoth 

 Shire that tips the beam at thirty hundredweight, the 

 pony of Wales, the Clyde of Scotland, the thoroughbred 

 of England, and the trotter of America — all have one 

 common ancestry. It is manifestly inaccurate, therefore, 

 to say like produces like. The saying may be true in a 

 certain degree of animals in a state of nature, but certainly 

 not of animals under domestication. And so far as man is 

 responsible for these variations, we should like to know 

 when and under what circumstances he must act, or does 

 act, to develope them. 



These artificial characteristics start in variations which, 

 by careful selecting, breeding, and intelligent feeding, may 

 in time become dominant. When acquired or artificial 

 characteristics become dominant, then they may, under 

 favourable circumstances, be transmittable. 



If a colt is better suited for cross-country work than 

 either its sire or its dam or any of its more remote ances- 

 tors, a variation or artificial characteristic has been pro- 

 duced. I firmly believe that, whatever degree of excellence 

 an animal ultimately arrives at above that of its ancestors, 

 it receives the impetus from its parents. Subsequent care, 

 feeding, and climatic influences may develope it, but cannot 

 produce it. The time when it is within man's power to 

 assist in the moulding and fashioning of the colt must be 

 prior to its birth. 



Confucius taught that the age of a child should begin to 

 be recorded from a year before it was born. It is on this 

 principle, whether it has been recognised or not, that all 



