BREEDING, AND THE PRINCIPLES OF THE SAME. 305 
reasons than one, such are unfit for breeding purposes, unless, 
however, the morbid phenomena be neutralized by blood, in one 
of the parents, of a superior order, free from taint, 2s it ajpears in 
the other. 
Tn my adventures in search of the beautiful, I should pass by 
all animals having any peculiarity of conformation, general or 
local, which experience teaches me are sure to reappear either 
directly or indirectly, in future progeny. This appears to be the 
proper course to pursue; yet many, otherwise intelligent men will 
invest their money in the purchase of defective animals, merely 
because they can be bought cheap, when every body knows, or 
sught to know, that cheap animals, like cheap watches, «ost more, 
in the end, for repairs, etc., than a commodity of more real valve. 
The same rule applies to horses. Some men, if they happen te 
be in possession of a broken-down mare, unable, from faults, de- 
fects, old age, and disease, to perform ordinary horse duties, coz- 
mence a speculation in a different enterprise. The reproductive 
organs must be exercised. Just at this time some cent-and-dollar 
calculating jockey advertises and exhibits a well-fed, prancing steed, 
bearing a popular name; but his whole carcass is redolent of faults 
and defects, which the owner is not expected to know any thing 
abcut, and if he does, it is not for his interest to point them out. 
The price of copulation is dirt cheap, and the foolish speculaton 
expects to obtain a smart colt, that will eventually command a 
high price. But, alas for such milk-and-water calculations! the 
expected specimen of equine animality inherits and exhibits ita 
parental infirmities and deformities, and ultimately becomes a 
living monnment of the folly of its owner. 
There is no beauty in the faults and defects which must neces- 
sarily occur through the sexual congress of faulty and defective 
animals; neither can there be grace in the motions of an overfed 
or ill-conditioned animal. Beauty, symmetry, grace, and sound- 
ness are defunct in the ill-conditioned creature, or otherwise de- 
fective one—a mere apology for the handiwork of Nature. The 
muscular system of a horse or cow may, in some regions of the 
body, be well-developed; but should their limbs be unnaturally 
curved, or any part of their system be out of proportion to the 
other parts of the body, then beauty has never seated itself on 
their thrones. Yet we can improve the appearance of such ani- 
mals by artificial means and costly adornments. This artificial 
20 
