CR.ESCEUS, 2 : O 2 /4 



nod to the auctioneer, the mare was knocked down to 

 him for $250, each believing the bid was for their 

 account ; but the bid was Mr. Ketcham's and he secured 

 the mare at that figure. 



Mabel was sent to Mr. Ketcham's farm, and she was 

 bred to a son of Baron Wilkes. Shortly after secur- 

 ing Mabel, Mr. Ketcham purchased grand old Robert 

 McGregor, and the following year Mabel was bred 

 to him ; Cresceus was the resulting foal. "Volunteer," 

 a well-known student of the breeding and development 

 of the American trotter, has prepared the following 

 analysis of the blood lines of Cresceus. 



Perhaps the first thing that will strike the attention 

 of the student of breeding is the fact that Cresceus, 

 in the male line, represents the Hambletonian Star 

 cross, of which Directum, 2 105!, whom he has de- 

 throned, was also an exemplar. Perhaps no "nick" 

 was ever so popular as this one in its day. Later 

 strong criticism was leveled against it, especially by 

 Mr. Wallace. In recent writings he remarks that 

 while Hambletonian got his best trotters Dexter, 

 2:17^, and Nettie, 2:18 from Star mares, he got no 

 such great sires as George Wilkes, Electioneer, Happy 

 Medium, etc., from them. "In the instance of Dicta- 

 tor and Aberdeen there was a reasonable measure of 

 success," are his words, but all the others, and there 

 are many of them, proved comparative failures. 



There is a lesson taught here that any one can in- 

 terpret. Perhaps on the score of prolificacy this is 



5 



