52 HOUSE PORTRAITURE. 



followed the plan you have advised, as far as my means 

 would permit. 



I cannot coincide in your opinion of even making the 

 most money by the early sales of colts having the admix- 

 ture of French blood, to make them learn their trotting 

 lessons easier. If I were able to breed in the manner I 

 would like, to secure the right location for the farm would, 

 of course, be the first thing. I would look a long while 

 before I made the selection, as it would have to combine 

 qualities that are not found on every farm. Supposing 

 it to lie north of the forty-first or second parallel of lati- 

 tude, it would have to be in a sheltered situation, where 

 no rough wind should have a long sweep. The soil should 

 be rich, so that there would be a good growth of herbage, 

 and suitable for the production of all kinds of grain. 

 Without drawing on my fancy, I will describe a place I 

 have often thought the very best I ever saw for a horse 

 breeding establishment. It consists of six hundred and 

 forty acres, being a square, each of its boundary lines a 

 mile. Along its eastern boundary is a road that for 

 several miles is perfectly straight, nearly level, and quite 

 sandy. About half way there is another road running in 

 a westerly direction, by the buildings, which are located 

 very near in the centre of the whole tract. The eastern 

 half of the section is very nearly level, yet undulating 

 enough to cause perfect drainage. On this portion is 

 found almost every variety of western land that along 

 the road having a mixture of sand ; and as you go back, 

 there is gravelly loam, heavy alluvium, clayey loam, all 

 rich, mellow, and friable as an ash heap. This part was 

 originally prairie, lying on the second bottom of the 

 Mississippi Biver. The western part of the section runs 

 part way up the bluff, which is crescent-shaped, and of a 

 gentle inclination, rising about two hundred feet higher 

 than the bottom. This bluff does not present a contiuu- 



