52 HORSE-BREEDING FOR FARMERS CHAP. 
good horses were formerly produced either by hazard 
or by the care and selection of a few intelligent 
breeders; but now our horses and mares are so 
classified, and so bred to type and uniformity by the 
influence of the Stud Book, that breeding has become 
a practical science, the knowledge of which renders 
it comparatively easy to breed exactly that stamp 
we are in search of. Twenty years ago there was 
only the General Stud Book for Thoroughbreds, and 
it had not been a hundred years in existence then. 
The example set by the racing world with such a 
splendid result has been followed by the agricul- 
turist, the hackney breeder, the coach horse breeder, 
even the pony or hunter breeder, and we are already 
reaping the most extraordinary result from this move- 
ment. We have literally created a new pattern of 
almost every class of horse in the last quarter of a 
century. It is astonishing how quickly the stamp 
of the racehorse becomes fixed through the obliga- 
tion to trace the pedigree to record performance. It 
is well known that every English Thoroughbred of 
to-day is descended from one of about ninety-six 
original mares. Of these more than one-half trace 
their origin to Arab, Barb, or Oriental blood in the 
main; but there remain a number of original mares 
which were English, or whose relationship to Eastern 
blood was not recorded, and which were probably 
sprung from generations of selection and crossing 
with the view of obtaining the greatest stamina and 
speed. As soon as the Stud Book was closed 
against unpedigreed horses, the type became fixed, 
and with each succeeding generation the impressive 
power of the breed became stronger, so that to-day 
