12 



upon. The dishonest breeder of any animal "goes to the 

 wall" inevitabl3\ Honor is the very essence of his busi- 

 ness. A man is no longer classed as a breeder whose 

 word cannot be implicitly relied upon. 



The argument that has been heretofore urged against 

 the breeding of horses is the demoralizing effect that it 

 may have upon a young man, and the disreputable asso- 

 ciates that it brings about him. Whatever force this may 

 have had, before so much attention was paid to horse 

 breeding by some of the best men among us, to-day it will 

 not hold. It is only by leaving it in dishonest hands that 

 a business becomes disreputable. When such men as I 

 have spoken of engage in this work they elevate its char- 

 acter. Bad men will exist everywhere, luit there is abso- 

 lutely no place for them among successful breeders of 

 animals, whether horses, cows, sheep, pigs, hens or dogs. 



It has become a dangerous thing to-day for a man to' 

 exaggerate the merits of his horse in his advertisement, if 

 he desires to establish a reputation as a trustworthy breed- 

 er. When I told one of the best breeders in Maine that a 

 certain horse he had not seen, could not be recognized from 

 his owner's description of him, he said " I thought his ad- 

 vertisement read like that of a quack." 



The progress of civilization has abolished the horse- 

 jockey, if by horse jockey is meant the man who lives by 

 cheating in horses, or at any rate has relegated him to the 

 same position as the man who cheats at cards or swindles 

 in any other occupation, and the poor horse is in no way 

 responsible for his practices, except that his nature and 

 characteristics so nearly approach the human, that he 

 easily becomes his unwitting accomplice. 



