2 THE MORGAN HORSE 



road horses on its present basis is that, unless assisted by long and careful 

 selection by breeders in a given line, no uniformity of offspring is produced. 

 So that, while we know perfectly well what to expect when we are to be 

 shown a Percheron, one of a line of draft horses reduced to a type, we 

 have no idea what the animal will be like when a trotter or roadster is to be 

 .exhibited. 



In establishing the rule, that the foundation stock to be entered in the 

 MORGAN REGISTER should trace in direct .male line to Justin Morgan and 

 have at least one sixty-fourth of his blood, we have been governed by the 

 following considerations: The natural -division of horses into families, as 

 Morgan, Messenger, Bellfounder, Bashaw and the like, is by male line ; and 

 this has been established by custom among breeders as well as by writers and 

 students of the subject. The question of how remote a descendant in direct male 

 line should be deemed a member of the family presented some difficulty ; 

 but, considering that the original Morgan Horse was born more than a cen- 

 tury ago, admitting of at least twenty-five intervening generations of his 

 blood ; that very little attempt has been made to keep a record of Mor- 

 gan pedigrees, so that there is every probability that a given animal of 

 Morgan characteristics, especially if bred in a Morgan region, possesses an 

 indefinite number of unknown strains of the blood ; that as a general rule 

 the colts tracing in male line to Justin Morgan, kept entire, have been chosen 

 because they showed Morgan characteristics, and that the ready intelligence 

 of breeders will enable them to choose for breeding in future those registered 

 animals that conform most nearly to the Morgan type we deemed it best to 

 include animals as far down as the sixth generation in direct male descent, 

 when no other Morgan blood came in. This gives one sixty-fourth, and for 

 similar reasons the rule was extended to include all meritorious animals hav- 

 ing that fraction or more of the blood, provided they trace in direct male 

 line to Justin Morgan ; the right being reserved to reject all animals found 

 not to be meritorious. 



Active work on the Morgan Register was begun in the fall of 1884, and 

 has since been prosecuted as vigorously as circumstances would permit. As 

 soon as the project was advertised, it met with an enthusiastic response from 

 breeders and admirers of the Morgan Horse all over the country, demon- 

 strating in a thousand instances the strong hold which the Morgans have on 

 the affections of the people. The excellent work, entitled, " Morgan Horses", 

 by D. C. Linsley of Middlebury, Vermont, published in 1857, furnished a 

 precedent and foundation for the Morgan Register. That work gave a graphic 

 description of the Morgan family, its history to that time, and pedigrees of 

 about two hundred and forty stallions of the blood. Considerable portions 

 of Mr. Linsley's work are given within ; the pedigrees published by him 

 have been re-investigated as far as possible, but most of them have been 

 found very correct. 



In the preparation of the present work, and the inquiries and investiga- 

 tions connected therewith, extending over a period of eight years, we have 

 used in correspondence nearly a hundred thousand letters, and have person- 



