FACTORS OF IMPROVEMENT 187 



a wide and abnormal departure from the types of a 

 breed, are difficult, and usually impossible, to perpet- 

 uate. Inheritance is not all, and is never so persistent 

 but that it can be greatly modified by food, climate and 

 habit. He who trusts to a long pedigree alone, is cer- 

 tain to be disappointed; he who trusts to food, climate, 

 habit and use, to produce desired qualities, and prac- 

 tices haphazard breeding, will meet with greater 

 disappointments. He is wise who makes full use of all 

 the factors which enter into the maintenance and 

 increase of valuable qualities. 



FOOD 



Food, next to inheritance, is the most potent factor 

 in the improvement of the horse. "As a man thinketh, 

 so is he"; as a horse eateth, so is he. This statement 

 may be too sweeping, but, when taken in connection 

 with inheritance, habit and climate, it is true. All the 

 energy which a horse uses is the product of food con- 

 sumed. Inheritance, climate and special development by 

 use may so modify the structure, both mentally and 

 physically, as to make the body a superior or inferior, 

 an economical or a wasteful living machine through 

 which the energy is expended. One piece of machinery 

 may do a certain amount of work twenty per cent 

 slower than another. This difference may be due to 

 putting the machine at work for which it was not best 

 adapted or to faulty mechanical construction. It may 

 be said, however, that the machine has no mental 

 capacity, while the added efficiency of the horse is fre- 



