22 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BREEDING. 



favorably or unfavorably. Elevated plains, low 

 marshes, and mountain ranges are each adapted 

 to support a species of animal life in some re- 

 spects distinct from the others; and hence a 

 knowledge of the effect of the various climatic 

 conditions, and of the different kinds of food, 

 becomes of the utmost importance to the 

 breeder in determining the kinds of domesti- 

 cated animals that he can produce with profit. 

 There is perhaps no variety of animals that 

 has been domesticated by man in which the 

 effects of climate and nutrition are more 

 apparent than in horses. Temperate regions, 

 grassy plains, and, consequently, abundant 

 nutrition, produce increased size and strength; 

 mountain ranges, with bleak, cold climate and 

 scanty subsistence, dwarf the frame and pro- 

 duce the hardy, diminutive pony. The fertile 

 plains of Germany and Flanders, with their 

 salubrious climate and abundant herbage, have 

 been the home, from the very earliest period 

 of history, of the ponderous draft horses which 

 still distinguish that region, and have been the 

 sources from which all the countries of the 

 world Tiave drawn the foundation for their 

 draft breeds. The bleak and barren Shetland 

 Islands, and the mountainous tract w T hich lies 

 between the plains of India and the crest of 

 the great Himalaya range, are the homes of 

 races of diminutive Donies, rough, shaggy and 



