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THE AMEBIC AN NATURALIST [Vol. XLVII 



that colors are unit characters and their inheritance 

 obeys the Mendelian Law of dominants and recessives, I 

 believe one very important step will have been taken to 

 solve the whole problem of breeding horses. 



This problem of breeding horses is a very large one. 

 No other animal is quite so valuable as the horse. Im- 

 mense sums of money are invested in farms and studs 

 for his production. The value of the horses themselves 

 mount up to over a thousand million of dollars. In num- 

 ber the horses in this country are over twenty million. 

 The large farmers may have automobiles, engines and 

 other mechanical devices, but they have horses and use 

 them in large quantities. The small farmer's most valu- 

 able possession is the faithful family horse. Yet, how 

 little is known about the scientific breeding of this valu- 

 able animal. Hogs and cattle we are producing to order, 

 but the production of the horse is still a haphazard busi- 

 ness. I believe that any effort that will aid the breeder 

 in producing better horses will be an effort well spent. 



In going through the American Saddle-Horse Register 

 I secured the color in 3,913 matings, which involved the 

 color of 11,739 horses. To these numbers I am now able 

 to add from Sturtevant's tables 8,464 matings, giving a 

 total of 12,377 matings or the color of 37,131 horses. 

 This number is sufficiently large, it seems to me, to enable 

 proper deductions to be drawn, unless it is in the case of 

 the rare colors. 



The tabulated matings and the resulting foals are: 



Chestnut X Chestnut 



Total 1432 16 not chestnut 



] 99% 1 1% 1 



Chestnut X Black 



Saddle I 77 I 52 I 13 I 98 I Anderson 



I 32% I 22% I 6% 1 40% j 



