16 THE VETERINARY DOCTOR. 
cross. As a producer of race horses Lexington stands at the head of Amer- 
ican sires. His daughters are now proving themselves as good in the stud as 
his sons were on the turf. None of his sons inherit his prepotency to as 
marked a degree, although some of them arz quite reputable as sires. It 
was through imported Glencoe mares that Lexington met with most suc- 
cess. Imported Leamington succeeded Lexington in popularity, and through 
his sons lias become so generally the leading strain in the popular estimation 
in this country that every considerable breeding establishment of race horses 
has a stallion of the strain, or is seeking for one. Bonnie Scotland was very 
popular latterly, and is the foundation of General Harding’s choicest breed- 
ing. The present blood of America is constantly being freshened by Eng- 
lish importations which for some physiological reason harmonize with our 
strains to a degree that makes the crosses better than either branch; so it 
seems at least by the way our horses have succeeded in England. 
THE HEAVY DRAUGHT HORSE, 
In speculating on the origin of the heavy breeds of horses it will be re- 
membered that we proposed to discuss the physiological causes of the varia- 
tions of breeds by the union of two such opposite elements as the oriental 
horse and primitive horse of Europe. 
According to the theory that like begets like or the likeness of some 
ancestor, which is the fundamental law of breeding or heredity, it will be 
understood that a slight or marked reversion to some ancestor more or 
less remote, from physical causes which it is impossible to determine, will 
make the produce of these opposite elements, even from thé same sire and 
dam, so widely different that one of the offspring may take the character 
wholly of one of the parents, or intensify some quality of an ancestor, or per- 
haps partake of the characteristics of both parents. In fact, the variation may 
be unlimited. If a breed is to be established, something more definite than 
this is required, and we must select an animal that not only has the physical 
traits which we wish to perpetuate but which also has the additional power 
of reproducing himself. That individual instances of this kind have existed 
and do exist admits of no successful dispute. To secure perpetuation, animals 
must be songht for mating which will cross kindly with them, so that their 
character will assimilate without altering those characteristics, except per- 
haps when it is desired to correct some defect. By this process a satisfac- 
tory result will in time be secured, and such animals will with reasonable 
certainty produce their like. Hence, in taking the’cases of two animals, the 
one carefully bred, and the other equal as to other particulars but not so 
well bred, a wide difference will be seen in their offspring. One will re- 
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