24 THE BREEDING PROBLEM. 



quality more apparent, than in the breeding of the trotting horse. Fifty 

 years ago, the American trotting horse, as a breed, was unthought of; and 

 one that could trot a mile in less than three minutes was an anomaly — an 

 accidental or spontaneous variation from the established type. But the ability 

 to trot fast was a desirable quality, and breeders sought to perjietuate it. 

 Animals that excelled the average of the species as trotters were selected to 

 breed from, with a view to perpetuating and intensifying this quality ; but as 

 its possession was at that time an accident — a spontaneous variation — it was 

 found that but few of the immediate descendants of the animals first chosen 

 with a view to breeding fast trotters, could trot faster than their remote 

 ancestors. But when such of them as did show improvement in this direction 

 were again selected for breeding purposes, and coupled together, it was found 

 that, while there were still many failures, the proportion of the descendants 

 that showed improvement in the trotting gait beyond the average of their 

 ancestors, was increased. And so, by selecting from generation to generation, 

 from such families as have shown a tendency to improvement in this quality, 

 we have made some progress toward founding a breed of trotting horses. 



So generally is the attention of the breeders of trotting horses directed to 

 the " bright particular stars" in the trotting firmament, each year, that we 

 lose sight of the immense number of horses that trot in 2 : 30 to 3 : 50 — a gait 

 that twenty, and even ten years ago, was fast enough to entitle a horse to rank 

 as a creditable performer on the turf; and in our admiration for these great 

 performers we have failed to note the extent to which the average speed of the 

 so-called trotting families has been improved. What horseman who has 

 reached the age of forty years can not remember how very rare three-minute 

 trotters were when he was a boy ! And yet what a large proportion now trot 

 faster than three minutes ! 



The extent of the improvement which has been efiected will be more appai^ 

 ent by reference to some of our trotting statistics. A list of all the trotters 

 that had made a public record of a mile in 3 : 30 or better during the year 

 1873, contained the names of 96 horses ; in 1873 it swelled to 106, and in 1874 

 it included 153 names. During the year 1875 the list was so greatly increased 

 that it numbered 184 horses. In 1876 it reached 225, and in 1877, 284 horses 

 trotted in 3 : 30 or better. 



But when we confine our observation to the faster classes our progress is 

 still more apparent. Up to the opening of the season of 1874, onlj^ 63 horses 

 had made a record of 2 : 25 or better in harness. With the close of 1877 the 

 number had reached 316. The 2:23 class progressed during the same inter- 

 val, from 34 to 106 ; the 3 : 30 class from 9 to 33 ; and the 3 : 19 class from 3 to 

 19 — certainly a very encouraging and satisfactory tribute to the skill of 

 American breeders. 



The records of the oldest prominent trotting course in America shows a 

 gradual but steady increase in the average speed of all the heats trotted at 

 each meeting, from 1866 down to last season — a period of twelve years. Com- 

 mencing in 1866 with 2m 383^8 as the average time in which all the heats 

 were trotted, it has been gradually lowered, until in 1876 it reached 3 : 33. 



While much of this increase in the average speed of our trotting horses 



