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DEVELOPMENT IN BREEDING STOCK. 49 



the ground. This would be strengthening the Bellfounder -without a 

 resort to the sanie blood. The Bellfounder cross was the true one in its 

 day in this regard, as Bellfounder had a low hock, and a long measure 

 from hip to hock. My own stallion. Argonaut, not only possesses the 

 physical conformation called for, but he also embraces the blood ele- 

 ments in the proper combination. He is strong in Messenger blood, 

 coming through fresh channels, and well and harmoniously interbred 

 Avith crosses of Duroc, Pilot, St. Lawrence and Sir Archy — a bold, 

 open and natural trotter, as was Bellfounder, with a powerful muscu- 

 lar organization, great strength of bone, and in substance after the 

 model of Hambletonian himself. I mention him in particular, not for 

 the purpose of calling him into notice, but for the puqiose of illus- 

 trating exactly and forcibly the qualities to be sought in a proper 

 outcross for the closely bred Messeno-ers of the Hambletonian family. 

 Great in fame as that family have already grown, their renown will 

 yet be advanced by the introduction of such elements as those above 

 indicated, and the future eminence of the American trotter will be a 

 conclusive testimonial to the correctness of these opinions. 



INFLUENCE OF DEVELOPMENT IN BREEDING STOCK. 



Tliis is another branch of the subject on which the writers, and 

 more particularly those who have never owned a breeding animal or 

 had any experience whatever in the breeding of stock, have much to 

 say. 



The contributions on this point have mainly been confined to the 

 horse department — as there seems to be a large number capable of 

 writing on that animal, who can say little of any other dej^artment of 

 breeding science. But after all that has been said or written on the 

 subject, the horse himself in the various animals that have been bred, 

 and the results of breedina: in the breedina; establishments of this 

 country, furnish more real instruction than all the amateur wi-iters in 

 the land. The horse as at present bred, as I have shown, is a coin- 

 pound animal, the result of acquired and inherited qualities. It is 

 also clear that the qualities he acquires he also transmits, provided he 

 retains the same, and they thus enter into and become a fixed part of 

 his animal character. 



These acquired traits, as they come from the exercise of certain 

 functions, so they depend for their maintenance upon the continuance 

 of such exercise, and they decline in force by disuse and idleness. 

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