THE AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 485 



named. The object is not so much to instruct the reader in facts 

 as in principles. There is a very prevalent opinion that trotters 

 are chance horses, and that there is no certainty in breeding for 

 them. So prevalent was this opinion a few years ago, that -then 

 trotters were chance horses, no well directed effort was made to 

 produce the desired result, by applying the same principles of 

 breeding that had been so long acknowledged in the breeding of 

 thorough-breds for running races. But when trotting became more 

 popular as a public amusement, when the value of good trotting 

 horses for road driving became more fully appreciated, and when 

 the increased demand ran the prices of even good roadsters into 

 the thousands, enlightened breeders began to apply to the breeding 

 of trotters the laws of hereditary descent, that had been discovered 

 in the breeding of other animals, and with the usual result. 



Now there are numerous large breeding establishments in Ken- 

 tucky, New York, Iowa, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, 

 Michigan, and perhaps some other states, in which especial atten- 

 tion is given to breeding trotters. Beside these breeding studs, 

 where much care and judgment are used in the matter, there are 

 thousands of farmers and others who in breeding horses, always 

 have in their minds the possibility of drawing a capital prize in 

 the shape of a fast trotter; but who have never had an opportunity 

 to be well informed in regard to the best method of accomplishing 

 that desirable result. 



These farmers and others who only rear one or two colts a year, 

 each, are in the aggregate the great horse breeders of the country; 

 and it is to them chiefly that the facts and arguments of this 

 essay are addressed. 



A very slight examination of the pedigrees of distinguished 

 trotters, will show their relationship to each other in so many cases, 

 that no one can doubt the derivation of their trotting speed from 

 a common ancestry. A few tabulated pedigrees are given at the end 

 of this essay, to facilitate the examination of them, and to more fully 

 impress on the minds of breeders the importance of breeding their 

 mares to stallions of good families, if they would reasonably expect 

 success. A horse may trot fast enough to make a public reputation, 

 and never beget fast colts, because he does not himself inherit the 

 quality strongly from his ancestors; for it may be that the quality 

 comes down to him through a single line of descent, and perhaps 

 that has been broken by one or more generations that showed no 

 speed. In such a case, the horse would be said to have " bred 

 back" to a speedy ancestor, and though he might beget fast colts 

 with fast mares, the probabilities of their being fast from common 

 mares would be very small. John Henry, a chestnut stallion, bred 

 in Salem county, New Jersey, trotted well, and begot many colts ; 

 but the best of them all, Bob Johnson, was nothing remarkable 

 41* 



