HORHE-BREEDING IN INDIA. 87 



Splint. 



Spavin. 



Ringbone, 



Sidebone. 



Laminitis. 



Naviculartliritis. 



Curb. 



Defective feet, &c. 

 Tendency to brittle feet, weak soles, flat soles, sand-crack, &c. 

 Lameness, produced by strains, sprains, break-down, dislocations, 

 fractures, etc., is not transmitted. Especially avoid unsoundness in 

 dam or sire. The tendency to it is always inherited, and no 

 amountof crossing seems to eradicate it. The famous ''Ormonde" is 

 one of a family of Whistlers. " Galopin," the sire of" Donovan,^' is 

 coarse hocked. "Godolphin," a son of his, now in India, is markedly 

 defective in his hocks, and his stock are frequently spavined. By breed- 

 ing always from one particular stamp possessed of certain qualities 

 which we wish produced, we get at last a breed or variety of a race. 

 In nature, Darwin says this is done by natural selection. Let us take 

 birds. Say a certain male bird by accident gets a few feathers on 

 the top of his head forming a slight crest, and this crest takes the 

 fancy of the hens he will mate more easily than his fellows. His 

 sons will probably have these small crests and are quite likely to mate 

 in after-life with their sisters, this will accentuate the tendency to 

 produce crested males, and if, again, incestuous mating occur, the 

 tendency grows stronger, so in the course of many years, perhaps 

 thousands, a crested race is produced, hoopoes, bulbuls, etc. 



This is the way Darwin contends that race varieties are formed iu 

 nature. Now, here is what we also want to do in breeding domesti- 

 cated animals and to form a variety which shall possess certain 

 qualities or conformation, rendering them more serviceable for the 

 purposes for which we require them. We cannot wait, as nature 

 does, hundreds or thousands of years, but must stamp the qualities 

 we want speedly. Say we want pace — we take a stallion of great 

 galloping powers (irrespective of other qualities), and put him 

 to the fastest mare we can get ; the produce we mate with its own 

 sire, if a filly ; with its own dam if a colt. This accentuates the 



