28 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BREEDING. 







better care, more generous feeding and more 

 genial climate, will tend to produce greater 

 size, a more graceful form, and greater excel- 

 lence. At the same time improvement in these 

 particulars is quite likely to be at the expense 

 of what is termed hardiness, or ability to with- 

 stand exposure and rough usage. 



ACCIDENTAL VARIATIONS OR " SPORTS." 



When animals in a state of nature are not 

 disturbed in the enjoyment of the conditions 

 under which they have existed for ages, as the 

 American bison or buffalo, the elk, the deer, 

 the wolf, etc., the uniformity which prevails 

 among all the individuals of the race is remark- 

 able; and all the peculiarities of structure, color 

 and character are transmitted from generation 

 to generation with almost unerring certainty; 

 and here the maxim of the breeder, thab "like 

 produces like," scarcely ever meets with an ex- 

 ception. Such animals are, in the truest sense 

 of the word, thoroughbred, or purely bred. 

 There has been no commingling of blood or 

 crossing of various strains to give the race a 

 composite character, and hence when we have 

 seen the sire and dam we can tell with certainty 

 what the progeny will be. Were any of our 

 domesticated animals purely bred, in the sense 

 that the bison, the elk or deer are purely bred, 

 the breeding problem would be a simple one, 



