CHAPTER I. 



GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING, 



It is stated in Holy Writ that "God made 

 man a little lower than the angels," and by 

 common consent the horse is usually placed 

 next highest in the scale of living things. It 

 will not be inappropriate then, in a treatise 

 mainly devoted to the breeding of this, the 

 noblest of the brute creation, to discuss some 

 of the general principles which govern the 

 transmission of hereditary qualities from par- 

 ent to offspring, and which are beyond a ques- 

 tion substantially the same throughout all 

 animal life. Through the practical application 

 of these laws to the business of breeding domes- 

 tic animals, which for many years past has so 

 largely occupied the attention of intelligent 

 men in Europe and America, the great mass of 

 our agricultural population have become famil- 

 iar with their inexorable power and force; and 

 with a knowledge of the immutability of these 

 laws has come a realization of the stern fact 

 that the human species furnishes no exception 

 to their operation. 



