88 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BREEDING. 



CHAPTER II. 



STALLIONS, BROOD MARES AND FOALS. 



If the reader has given any thought to the 

 general principles which govern stock-breeding 

 as elucidated in the preceding pages he must be 

 well aware of the fact that he cannot gather 

 grapes from thorns nor figs from thistles. The 

 general rule that "like produces like" is true 

 throughout all animal and vegetable life. Ev- 

 erything brings forth after its kind. We sow 

 pure seed and expect the produce to be of the 

 same kind. Wheat does not produce rye, neither 

 will oats produce barley. The rule is just as 

 true in animal life. The great principle that 

 each begotten creature is but the essence of 

 what has preceded it admits of very few ex- 

 ceptions. We have only to apply this general 

 principle, with a knowledge of the special char- 

 acteristics of the various breeds and families 

 of horses, as portrayed in this volume, and the 

 business of breeding horses of any given type 

 becomes greatly simplified. No man would 

 breed to a Shetland pony with the expectation 

 of producing a draft horse, nor to the ponder- 



