DANGEE OF EXPERIMENTS. 63 



would not need as much practice to acquire the necessary 

 knee action, which every fast trotter must have. You dis- 

 sented from the opinion, but as yet have not shown that 

 I was wrong in the premises. 



PUPIL. I had not come to that yet ; I had only carried 

 my colts along, till they were weaned and prepared for 

 the winter, passing over a great deal I meant to say, in 

 order to get to that point, but found that to make my 

 plan intelligible, it was necessary to go partially in detail 

 to be understood, and 



PEECEPTOE. All right, I was finding no fault with your 

 description. As I think you weaned your colts, and 

 started them into winter quarters in a very thorough 

 manner, and will warrant that if dealt with in ihe same 

 way till four years old, you will have the right kind of 

 animals whether they trot or not. Nor do I find fault 

 with your taking time to describe the scenery surround- 

 ing your farm. Were the best farm in the world iso- 

 lated from others, with no beautiful surroundings, it 

 would be no dwelling place for me. The blood you 

 would select would also meet my approbation. The only 

 trouble is in confining yourself to an experiment, which 

 would be all proper in a man with abundant means, 

 where failure would not result in pecuniary embarrass- 

 ment, the worst of all loads to bear, excepting personal 

 dishonor. After dinner I will be much pleased to hear a 

 continuation of your experimental farm. In the mean- 

 time, we must not neglect the commencement of our 

 duties to these animals that are to be put in active 

 training. You say they have had a good deal of walk be- 

 fore you left home, so that they will only need sufficient 

 to recover them from the long journey on the cars. To- 

 morrow, we will go to the shop, and see that they are 

 shod in a proper manner. With the exception of the 

 Falcon, they all want a change in their shoes, to guard 



