"IMPORTED" 43 



A large number of similar pedigrees might be 

 given, but they would serve no useful purpose. The 

 object in transcribing these is to illustrate how little 

 claim can be made to pure breeding of animals whose 

 breeder's name, date of birth and name of sire and 

 dam are all wanting. However, short pedigrees do not 

 necessarily imply inferiority nor lack of prepotency of 

 the animals to which they belong. While it is desir- 

 able to know as much as possible of every horse's 

 ancestry, it is easy to lay too much stress on pedigree 

 and too little on the intrinsic value of the horse for 

 the use contemplated. 



There has been no time during the last century 

 when superb animals could not have been selected 

 from varieties of horses in America with lineage well 

 known for two or three generations. A little judg- 

 ment in mating, rigid selection and improved food 

 and environment would have resulted in the forma- 

 tion of breeds as valuable as those which have been 

 imported at great expense and better adapted to 

 climate, food and use than are the progeny, as a 

 whole, of foreign -bred sires and dams. We have a 

 marked illustration of the success of such an under- 

 taking in the American trotter. It may be said that 

 the foundation stock, in part at least, was imported. 

 But if no effort had been made to produce a distinct 

 American variety of horse, we should still be import- 

 ing hot-blooded foundation stock of far less speed 

 than is possessed by the home-bred animals. It is 

 little wonder, then, that so distinguished a writer on 

 the horse as Frank Forester should call attention, in 



