146 HORSE BREEDING. 



cannot expect to gather grapes from thorns, nor figs from 

 thistles." 



This rule is just as true in animal life as applied to horse- 

 breeding, inasmuch as no man would think of breeding to a 

 Shetland pony with the expectation of producing a draft horse, 

 nor to the Clydesdale with the expectation of producing a 

 winner on the race course. 



Nature's great law is to transmit the general character of 

 the parents to the offspring, and in proportion as the breed is 

 firmly established and uniform in its characteristics, so will the 

 produce be uniform in its character. This great rule of nature 

 is applicable not only to horses, but it is an universal rule ap- 

 plicable alike to all animals. 



One of the first steps in horse breeding is for the breeder to 

 fully decide in his own mind what sort of a horse he wishes to 

 produce. 



BEEED FOE A PDEPOSE. 



Horses of different breeds for different purposes are in de- 

 mand, and the breeder should know from the start what he 

 desires to breed for and how to treat them. 



Raising horses, like raising grain or any other farm crop, 

 should be varied. If every farmer raised wheat to the exclu- 

 sion of all other grains, we should very soon find the market 

 overstocked and the business a (failure; so of other crops and 

 stock, and of the different kinds of horses. If all breeders should 

 turn their attention to the breeding of race-horses for a few 

 years, the price of a draft horse would soon be double that of a i 

 racer ; and so of other breeds. 



As to the most desirable breed of horses, of all the breeds 

 presented in this book, for the beginner to engage in breeding, 

 I have nothing further to say than this : 



Select your own breed from the many here given, first con- 

 sulting your own taste and ability ; but I will say right here 

 that to breed the blood horse, whether runner or trotter, requires 

 a much greater intelligence and skill than to breed the draft or 

 general purpose horse ; and unless a man has the peculiar skill 



