64 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BREEDING. 



of the human race? How many of my readers 

 are there who can call to mind numerous in- 

 stances of handsome, well-formed and robust 

 children the offspring 1 of a large father and a 

 small mother ! The same result has been ob- 

 served in hundreds of other cases where large 

 draft horses have been coupled with small or 

 medium -sized mares. In fact, it is the almost 

 universal testimony of those who have watched 

 closely the result of the cross of the imported 

 draf^ stallions brought to this country from 

 France and Great Britain, that the very best re- 

 sults have been obtained, not from large, coarse, 

 and loosely- made mares, as theorists would 

 have us suppose would be the case, but from 

 those of medium size, compactly made and 

 highly bred. 



The excellent results obtained by crossing 

 bulls of the large breeds upon our small native 

 cows; also, the health, vigor, and fine form of 

 the lambs got by large Cotswold rams out of 

 small ewes of the Merino breed, all go to prove 

 that this supposed law of Nature is no law at 

 all. In fact, if we study Nature, we shall be 

 compelled to admit that her law is just the 

 reverse of what has been claimed. It is, there- 

 fore, safe to assume that the results are more 

 likely to be satisfactory where large males and 

 small females are coupled for breeding purposes 

 than where the reverse is the method practiced. 



