192 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



to her offspring to the largest extent that nourishing aliment 

 which gives to bone and muscle and nerve the development 

 which produces strong and vigorous animals ; neither can she 

 impart in a great degree those qualities which give spirit, 

 energy, courage and endurance to her progeny. Dull, stupid, 

 exhausted herself, the colt will undoubtedly be like her. 



If from any cause the female has any defect, either being 

 blind or lame or having other imperfections or unsoundness, 

 then she ought on no account to be used as a breeder, for it 

 may be impossible to determine whether the defects are acquired 

 or hereditary, and, of course, transmissible. Unless it is very 

 certain tliat the defect is the result of accident or springs from 

 some well-known cause, it is far better to reject her. It is not 

 reasonable to expect perfect, sound, vigorous colts from old, 

 worn-out, broken-down and imperfect mares. Wbat is true of 

 the female is likewise true of the male. The stock horse should 

 be, in every particular, the most perfect of his kind, and it 

 should be positively certain, from well authenticated records, 

 that he comes of good stock. If alleged to be of an old race 

 that has transmitted for generations those fine qualities which 

 have given it its celebrity, be well assured that this particular 

 horse from which you breed does in reality belong to that race, 

 that he is truly " the worthy son of a worthy sire," and that in 

 his veins courses the blood that has made his ancestry famous. 

 Never overlook the fact that " it is blood which tells," and un- 

 less this is of the " true strain," you have no surety that your 

 colt will possess the qualities of the race. The time at which 

 a mare should begin to breed is not definitely settled ; but if she 

 come of good reliable stock, whose qualities and excellences 

 have been well established, we recommend that she commence 

 at the beginning ofher third year. By so doing there is a gain 

 in time of a year ; being at grass and as yet not fit for work, she 

 loses nothing herself, while she gains so much by bringing a 

 colt. 



There is no risk in this, for by this time, if she has been prop- 

 erly fed and cared for, she is sufhciently developed ; being 

 young, vigorous, full of rich, nutritious blood, with an unbroken 

 spirit, the fire of youth burning lustily in her system, and her 

 whole being teeming with the forces and energies of youthful 

 life, she can transmit them, together with the qualities of her 



