IIORSES. 353 



been bred with the utmost care and study for centuries; and 

 unless the strictest attention and judgment be given to the 

 crossing of these animals, they very soon lose their most desi- 

 rable qualities. Let us cross the best English stock with our 

 best native stock, and we can create a class of animals adapted 

 to our peculiar wants. 



There arc, at the present time, three prominent classes of 

 horses in great demand with us. First, the gentleman's and 

 business man's elegant, fast-trotting, powerful roadster, which 

 can trot twelve or fourteen miles within the hour, or a single 

 mile inside of three minutes. Second, the farmer's horse-of-all- 

 work, which can plough, reap, mow, and go to mill and to meet- 

 ing. Third, the slow, heavy, stout, and steady puller, which, 

 whether hitched to the stone drag, the railroad car, or even to 

 the trunk of an oak tree, is sure to start at the word. Each 

 of these classes differs very materially from the others, and 

 should never be crossed with each other. 



The fast and elegant trotting horse, whose pedigree proves 

 him to have been bred from trotting stock for several genera- 

 tions, when crossed with a mare of similar qualities seldom or 

 never fails to communicate to the offspring the qualities of the 

 parent. But when the fleet roadster is crossed with the draught 

 horse the offspring is neither a roadster nor a draught horse, 

 but a miserable, uncomfortable, and useless thing. Such 

 colts are almost invariably foaled with an overgrown body, 

 and with legs altogether too light and weak to support it. 

 Being consequently too lazy or too clumsy for the carriage, too 

 feeble or too nervous for the plough or the drag, they pass their 

 whole lives in the hands of jockeys, and are " dickered " from 

 one to another, till at last death comes to their relief and con- 

 signs them to their proper receptacle — the compost heap. 



It is as easy to raise a good horse as a bad one, and a thou- 

 sand times more agreeable, as every one who has tried it knows. 

 But, in order to do this, we must be sure upon the start that 

 the fountains are pure, or all is labor lost, and worse than lost. 

 If we wish to raise a perfect colt, we should shun the mare or 

 horse which has a spavin, ringbone, curl, chest-founder, con- 

 tracted feet, or any disorder that is capable of being transmit- 

 ted to the offspring. Many will say that they have raised sound 



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