IN WHAT ARE CALLED THE BREEDING DISTRICTS. 375 
horses ; we can, therefore, never have any lack of sires; we have 
plenty of stallions of the very best blood and quality: but this is 
only one side of a ladder . To make good work of it, I contend, 
we must also breed from good mares of their kind. There are, 
indeed, some strange theorists in the world, who would have us 
believe that the sire is every thing, and the female nothing, in the 
production of offspring; that it is the male alone that stamps the 
peculiar character of the progeny. Our neighbours, the French, 
seem, I think, to have taken up this idea pretty generally. In 
the liecueil de Medicine Veterinaire , we find a paper written by 
M. Paquer, of Nantes, “ sur l’etat des Cheveaux en France, et 
sur les Moyens de les ameliorer, 77 in which we are told, that “ a 
farmer of the name of Leroche, living at Grisey, in Brie, by the 
advice of M. Chabert, director of the veterinary school, “ had 
several cart mares covered by an Arabian horse: they were 
straight-shouldered, flat-sided, had bad hind quarters (croupe 
basse), and were altogether of the worst formation; but they 
brought forth foals that afforded a striking contrast to them¬ 
selves, and marked the most rapid stride of nature towards perfec¬ 
tion. One of the produce being again put to an Arab, gave, in 
this second cross, a figure that approached most singularly to 
that of the sire ; and which, in fact, inherited all the properties 
of a thorough-bred horse (de premier sang). Here (says M. 
Paquer), is an interesting phenomenon, worthy the observer of Na¬ 
ture ! ! It would appear, that when the races are so different, the 
female only offers a receptacle where the seed of the male is 
developed in its full force. This, then, (he continues) is our best 
plan ; the surest mode of proceeding, in order to make our present 
miserable race of horses disappear. And crossing in this way 
offers another advantage, which is, that it may be put in practice 
upon a number of individuals at the same time/ 7 
Here, indeed, is crossing with a vengeance. In England, we 
should call this only spoiling good cart-horses ; and so long as 
our friends, the French, have these notions of breeding ; so long 
as they imagine they can get a thorough-bred horse out of a cart 
mare, either in the third or thirtieth generation, we need not be 
much afraid of their rivalling us in horse-flesh. Nevertheless, I 
would not allow them to take away our three-parts bred mares ; 
for these will certainly afford them such material as they are not 
likely to find any where else. 
With respect to breeding, however, I should be much more in¬ 
clined to follow the example of our practical friends, the wild 
Arabs of the desert. Horses may be said to constitute the whole 
of their property—their stock in trade. Breeding and rearing 
