BREEDING THE AMERICAN TROTTER. 179 



of America more than anything else could have done ; it has 

 filled the country with worthless brutes, unsuitable for any use 

 whatever, except, perhaps, a single season's gambling imple- 

 ment; and on the simple achievement of this single season 

 they have — both stallions and mares — been placed at the head 

 of our best American stock farms. 



This is not business-like, and will never permanently suc- 

 ceed. Although a firm believer in pedigree itself, I think it not 

 to be considered unless merit as well as speed is behind the in- 

 dividual. The standard craze amounts to nothing unless 

 backed by individual merit. Pedigree is all right, but stand- 

 ard-bred horses eligible to registry as such, without an animal 

 to correspond with the pedigree — as often witnessed in com- 

 bination sales when highly-bred stock will not sell for half 

 enough to pay for their service fees — is a highly deplorable 

 state of things, plainly showing that there is a screw loose some- 

 where. 



This standard business may be carried a little too far when 

 it admits everything bred in a certain line, without paying any 

 regard whatever to the animal so bred as being worthy of use 

 for breeding purposes, and rejecting many much better and 

 also well-bred animals because they do not come up to the stand- 

 ard in breeding according to set rules. 



How many gentlemen breeders among my readers have sold 

 good, well-bred mares for a nominal price because they were 

 non-standard according to the rules, and replaced them with 

 others much inferior at long prices, simply because they were 

 standard ? How many good colts have been gelded because of 

 being non-standard, and their places usurped by inferior ani- 

 mals both as to meritorious breeding and individual merit, that 

 were standard ? That the standard and the standard number 

 has discarded many a good animal, filling their places with in- 

 ferior ones, none of much observation and experience can deny. 



I like good breeding and fashionable pedigree as well as any 

 man, but what I consider of more importance, and what has 

 given me better results and greater satisfaction, is individual 



