STALLIONS. 59 



There are, 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 meeting. Third, The slow, 

 heavj, 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 generations, 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 daught horse, the offspring is 

 neither a roadster nor a draught horse, but a miserable, an uncom- 

 fortable, 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 " dick- 

 ered " from one to another, till at last death comes to their relief, 

 and consigns them to their proper receptacle, the compost heap. 



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

 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 foun- 

 tains are pure, or all is labor lost, and worse than lost. If we wish 

 to raise a perfect colt, we skould shun the mare or horse which has 

 a spavin, ring-bone, curl, chest-founder, contracted feet, or any 

 disorder that is capable of being transmitted to the offspring. — 

 Many will say that they have raised sound colts from unsound 

 stock — but be not deceived by such statements. The principles of 

 breeding are fixed and immutable ; — " Like will produce like " — 

 and although a sound foal may occasionally be dropped from an 

 unsound mare, yet the unsoundness is born in his flesh and is lurk- 

 ing in his veins, and sooner or later will start out, and claim its 

 victim. Where one escapes an hundred fall. Breed from sound 

 stock, and nothing else. 



In regard to the class of horses that command the highest prices 



