SELECTION OF STALLION AND MARES. 57 



Henry, the celebrated antagonist of Eclipse, was the sire 

 of the dam American Star, that got Goshen Maid, Bolly 

 Lewis, and a great many other good ones renowned in the 

 stud as well as the trotting course. 



Post Boy, a son of the hero of 7 : 37, left many fine road- 

 sters through Ohio and Michigan, ending his career in 

 Dixon, Illinois, where he died in 186*3, thirty years old, 

 the last of his get a very promising trotting filly. I would 

 prefer the stallion a bay or brown. My choice woiild be 

 that rich, rosewood brown, a color often seen in the colts 

 of imported Sovereign. It would be an additional in- 

 ducement for me to buy him if he had been tried, and his 

 eolts were found to color after himself, and it would be 

 absolutely essential that he had good trotting action 

 the faster the better. 



For mares I would like to get good sized, roomy ani- 

 mals, with all the important points good ; strong consti- 

 tutions and docile in their temper. I would not care if 

 they had less quality than the stallion, but would much 

 prefer one that had been a mother, proving herself a good 

 milker, to one that looked a little better, but not known 

 to possess this great desideratum for the well-doing of 

 the colt. Their blood would suit me best to resemble 

 that of the stallion, by having the remote crosses similar, 

 with an admixture of Trustee or Boston, both of whose 

 descendants I have seen trot fast. They should also have 

 the clear trotting step that a majority of thoroughbred 

 mares surely possess. I do not think the objection often 

 urged against breeding from near affinities, is sustained 

 by proof from the record quite to the contrary, as was 

 exhibited by Ariel. Many of the best animals on the turf 

 have been thus bred. I would not advise incestuous 

 crosses, though even that is less to be dreaded than many 

 think. Virginia Taylor and Virginia Lafayette by Sir 

 Archy, dam Coquette by Sir Archy, were both good 



