62 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BREEDING. 



is one that brings superior merit; without this 

 it is a delusion and a snare. No matter what 

 it may have been eight or ten generations ago, 

 if from a wrong system of breeding, if from a 

 lack of care in selection, or from any other 

 cause, any particular strain has ceased to be 

 uniformly superior, in itself, it has lost its 

 patent of nobility. Let all young breeders, and 

 old ones, too, for that matter, try "pedigrees," 

 and "families," and "strains" by this test, with- 

 out being dazed by some imaginary halo that 

 attaches to a name handed down from the 

 misty traditions of the past, and it will be the 

 better for them, no matter what particular line 

 of breeding they may be engaged in. 



RELATIVE SIZE OF SIRE AND DAM. 



The relative size of sire and dam is a subject 

 upon which much has been written, and upon 

 which I am satisfied there has been much wrong 

 teaching. It is true that nearly all writers up- 

 on the subject have laid down the rule that, in 

 coupling, the male should be smaller than the 

 female; but it is also true that very many per- 

 sons write dogmatically upon subjects which 

 they know very little about; and it is further 

 true that writers upon heredity, for years and 

 years past, have done but little more than to 

 repeat each other, accepting what has been 

 said by others as true without question, not 

 knowing or caring to know anything about the 



