INTRODUCTION 



For a long time many persons have been impressed with the idea that steps 

 ought to be taken to perpetuate the valuable family of Morgan horses. One 

 of the first essentials to this end was seen to be a Register, without which 

 systematic and scientific breeding is hardly possible. We believe that the 

 true basis of registration is blood, and that the object of the breeder should 

 be to produce a type of animals, as nearly perfect as may be, that may be re- 

 produced with uniformity. This result has been attained among the various 

 species of domestic animals that are known as pure-bred, as the greyhound 

 and pointer among dogs, the Merino and Cotswold among sheep and the 

 Jersey and Devonshire among cattle. There are, also, types of horses that 

 are reproduced with great uniformity, notably the Shetland pony and the 

 Percheron and Clyde draft animals ; but the light harness horse of the pre- 

 sent day, however excellent he may be as an individual, is, in breeding, a 

 mongrel, his mingled strains of various bloods making the character of his 

 offspring always to some extent a matter of uncertainty. The prevailing 

 system of registration, based upon no quality save the ability to trot or 

 pace a fast mile, has no tendency to check this evil, but rather fosters it ; as 

 every variety of size, color, gait, conformation and disposition is to be found 

 among standard trotting-bred animals. 



The "old-fashioned Morgans" were doubtless the nearest approach to a 

 uniform and meritorious type of road horses ever produced in this country. 

 The blood of the founder of that family was endowed with such prepotency 

 that even a small infusion would govern other mingled strains and produce 

 the Morgan characteristics. Moreover, the great popularity of the breed led 

 to intense inbreeding, not often among animals too nearly related, but be- 

 tween those nearly enough allied to each other to produce typical results. 



Hence resulted THE MORGAN HORSE, a type so well known, and so often 

 described within, that it would be superfluous to give the description here ; a 

 type that has endured to the present day, although the numbers have been 

 in recent years greatly reduced by crosses intended to enhance the quality of 

 racing speed with little regard to other characteristics. 



We do not disparage the work already done in the registry of horses in 

 this country. A vast amount has been accomplished in redeeming the line- 

 age of the light harness horse of America from chaos, and giving to the 

 breeder or dealer a line of established facts, instead of a series of guesses 

 made with greater or less attempt at accuracy. The trouble with breeding 



