40 THE BREEDING PROBLEM. 



far too cold and uncongenial, but from their intermixture with our 

 other lines of blood, although not up to the highest standard of excel- 

 lence, they are now far preferable as a resort to any new impor- 

 tations or other low-bred or distant removes from our American 

 standard. In our Abdallahs, Hambletonians, Champions, Clays, or 

 Bashaws, and Mambrinos, as at present crossed with the Pilots, 

 St. Lawrences, ]\Iorgans, Pacers, and other stock as bred and inter- 

 mingled for the past fifty years, we have an abundant range for 

 selection Avithout ever introducing a single new or foreign or low-bred 

 element into our trotting families. With sufficient care and discrimi- 

 nation we can and should render our trotting stock more and more 

 homogeneous and uniform in their style and standard of excellence 

 each year, and at the same time hold them in range far enough 

 removed as to avoid the ill effect of too close in-breeding. It must, 

 however, be clearly stated in this connection, that the one great dan- 

 ger from violent outcrossing in our breed of trotting horses, is in the 

 discordant or conflicting elements of gait and temperament that may 

 be thereby introduced. Outcrossing, if not Avith low or ill-bred stock, 

 often seems to add greatly to the physical and nervous development of 

 a family, in all that pertains to size, vigor and health, and in many 

 cases the greatest and most valuable results have accrued from such 

 unions. 



The present elements of Pilot blood in our trotting horse — a very 

 valuable element indeed — have come to us as the result of a very 

 violent cross, but one that fused well and became thoroughly assimi- 

 lated, and as such forms a union with almost any blood vnth which it 

 unites, in the same harmony which it displayed in the first union. 



Mr. Darwin, the eminent English naturalist, on the general subject 

 of cross-breeding, uses the following language: 



The crossing of distinct forms, whether closely or distantly allied, gives 

 increased size and constitutional vigor, and, except in the case of crossed spe- 

 cies, increased fertility, to the offspring. The evidence rests on the universal 

 testimony of breeders (for it should be observed that I am not here speaking 

 of the evil results of close interbreeding), and is practically exemplified in the 

 higher value of cross-bred animals for immediate consumption. The good 

 results of crossing have also been demonstrated, in the case of some animals 

 and of numerous plants, by actual weight and measurement. Although ani- 

 mals of pure blood will obviously be deteriorated by crossing, so far as their 

 characteristic qualities are concerned, there seems to be no exception to the 

 rule, that advantages of tha kind just mentioned are thus gained, even when 

 there has not been any previous close interbreeding. The rule applies to all 

 animals, even to cattle and sheep, which can long resist breeding in-and-in 



