200 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



Prairie, and probably every mixture mixed again that has been 

 domesticated since the discovery by Columbus. 



There is no reason why Nantucket should not make herself 

 as famous for producing good horses as the Channel Islands 

 have become for producing good cows. Careful attention to 

 the selection of mares has more to do with it than in procuring 

 the sires. The Arabs, for all our self-conceit, are at this day 

 the best breeders of horses. With them we find more stress 

 laid on a good mare than a good sire. A first-class mare cannot 

 be bought of an Arab. He knows that there is scarcely a dis- 

 ease which is not inherited more frequently from the dam than 

 the sire. For this reason the Arab shows the greatest care in 

 selecting a mare, and the greatest attention to her offspring. 



We hope the time will soon come when the professional horse- 

 raiser will give his first and greatest attention to the stock he 

 proposes to propagate ; that he will make extended inquiries to 

 find whether the mare he is about to select as a breeder is free 

 from blemish, hereditary or acquired ; that he will select none 

 except such as are young and vigorous and have not been broken 

 down by hard labor, of roomy form and good blood. Tliis is of 

 far more consequence than that the sire should be some fashion- 

 able, newspapcr-pufTed animal, with a long pedigree. For a road 

 animal, the draught, the plough, use mares with the splinter or 

 " heaves," or any other infirmity, for anything except breeding. 

 Use them because they are tougher than a horse, less liable to 

 injury, and will do more work on less feed. But for breeding 

 purposes select the very best. 



There is another thing which those we call barbarians have 

 learned, which it will be profitable for us to follow. That is, 

 that gentle treatment and intelligent using of the colt is all the 

 breaking that is requisite. Tliat not to fear man is one of the 

 most important lessons that the young colt can acquire. By 

 teaching him this and practising kindness invariably, we can get 

 him to practise quite readily all that we now rend from him 

 with the common "assault and battery" process. 



Edward M. Gardner, Chairman. 



