256 
Management of Farm-Horses. 
often regarded as a matter of chance whether the produce will 
turn out valuable or worthless ; whilst, on the other hand, 
there is nothing so true as that unhealthy parents will not 
produce healthy offspring. It is very possible that where one 
parent is sound and the other diseased the progeny may turn after 
the former; but then it is just as likely to turn after the latter, 
and therefore it is very unwise to risk the expenses of breeding 
on such an uncertainty. 
There are few subjects connected with breeding more interesting 
than the relative influence of the male and female parent, and few 
on which such different opinions prevail. Whilst some ascribe 
the principal influence to the male, others consider that it is 
chiefly due to the female, and there are not wanting illustrations 
that appear to support either theory. The freaks of nature (as 
they appear to us) are certainly very curious, and people are often 
more struck by a remarkable exception than even by the rule, 
and are disposed to found their theories accordingly. The 
Arabs of the desert, so celebrated for their scrupulous attention 
to the purity of their breed of horses, are comparatively indif- 
ferent as to the stallion, but prize and preserve their mares 
with the most rigorous care. They will part with the former for 
an equivalent remuneration, but scarcely anything will induce 
them to dispose of their mares if they belong to the true breed. 
From this well-known fact it has been naturally inferred that 
they consider the influence of the female as pre-eminent, and the 
supporters of this theory adduce the fact just mentioned as a 
strong argument in its favour. Indeed, at first sight it would 
appear, when we consider the more intimate connexion of the 
female with the offspring, kept up during the long space which 
elapses between conception and birth, that the influence of the 
dam must be greater than the sire. 
Facts, however, appear rather to support an opposite doctrine. 
The offspring of the male ass and the female horse resembles the 
former far more than the latter : the long ears, spare muscular 
development, narrow feet and sluggish action, are almost equal 
peculiarities of the mule and the ass, and strongly attest the 
plebeian origin of the former. The size, too, approximates to the 
ass, for the large Spanish mules we sometimes meet with are 
begotten by asses of great size. 
It is surprising, too, what large colts small mares will breed 
when begotten by horses of great size. Pony mares will thus 
rear stout cobs and galloways ; and well-bred mares about 15 
hands high will throw good sized carriage-horses if put to a 
powerful stallion. 
We may, therefore, from these and other similar facts which 
could readily be adduced, be justified in concluding that so far 
