RECOLLECTIONS OF MEN AND HORSES 



were required to reduce the trotting record from 

 three minutes and less to two minutes. The evolu- 

 tion from Messenger, who died in 1808, age twenty- 

 eight years, was slow but sure. The germ in the 

 course of time became a living form. The acquired 

 character was merged into the congenital, and now 

 the great trotter, the winner of future prizes, is born, 

 not manufactured. 



Darwin holds that climate has an effect upon the 

 horse, altering to some extent the character of the 

 ancestral stock. In India Scotch setters will not 

 breed true to their type, owing to radical change of 

 climate. The ocean separates the birthplace of 

 Messenger from his grave, and I fully believe that 

 the character of his progeny was modified by climate 

 and food. The climatic outcross in his case was 

 more pronounced than that which attended the trans- 

 fer of George Wilkes from New York to Kentucky; 

 and it is a thrice-told tale that the progeny of Wilkes, 

 born under Blue Grass skies, was far better, as a rule, 

 than that of New York. Nutrition also has a modi- 

 fying influence. The Brazilian parrot changes the 

 green in its feathers to red or yellow, if fed on the 

 fat of certain fishes. A diet of hempseed will cause 

 the bullfinch to turn black, and you can redden the 

 plumage of the canary by feeding it on cayenne pep- 

 per. Experience confirms the opinion that structure, 

 as well as temperament, is influenced by food and 

 change of climate. 



Jessie Kirk was a brown mare, foaled in Kentucky, 

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