DUIJOC BLOOD. 437 



the tendency was strong toward the Duroc character. They each 

 agreed that American Eclipse was a Messenger, but that his produce 

 Avere generally Durocs. This is an interesting, but a very singular 

 fact, and shows that this peculiar conformation of Duroc, which 

 shapes and controls in the matter of gait, is a progressive one. No 

 one can doubt this who studies our Duroc-Messenger families. The 

 Almonts, Blackwoods and Swigerts are strongly Duroc gaited. 



While this Messenger Duroc blood displays such high qualities as 

 a. trotting element, it must be kept in mind that it is only where the 

 Diomed is kept under proper control by the superior virtue and 

 strength of the Messenger that such quality exists, this being the 

 only constituent that can with safety be strengthened by in-breeding. 

 "We hear no complaint from any quarter of too much of the latter 

 blood. No pedigree is regarded as tainted, unsound, or lacking in 

 stamina, in consequence of a superabundance of that element. Un- 

 like all others, it exists in its greatest jDurity and richest exuberance 

 of action and power where there is most of it. Not so with the Duroc 

 or any of the other Diomed strains. As they are reinforced by kin- 

 dred elements, the taint of unsoundness is intensified, and the ten- 

 dency toward the trotting gait disappears. 



