SCIENTIFIC BREEDING. 
191 
disproportionate in size. Pictures of these horses have been pre¬ 
served to us in a very curious way. There were artists among’ 
the cavemen of those days. Their pictures of the horse and 
other animals, made on antlers and horns, are drawn u with a 
spirit, a rigor and a fire that would do credit to an artist of to¬ 
day.” In the Swiss lake-dwellings of the stone and early bronze 
ages, we find not only the bones, but horses’ bits made of stags’ 
horns and bronze. These bits are only three and one-half inches 
wide, hardly suitable for a child’s pony of to-day. A cob thir¬ 
teen and one-quarter hands high required a bit four and one- 
quarter inches in width, and a Shetland pony of eleven and 
three-quarter hands required a bit of three and three-quarter 
inches in width, and shoes three inches wide. Modern bits for 
horses vary in width from four and one-half to seven inches. 
In the early and late bronze, also iron age, the horse was used 
for food and was tamed. Then Homer wrote of them being 
harnessed and used on chariots for war or races, and occasionally 
for riding, but were yet too small for any very special exercise 
in that way. Domestication had not yet commenced to tell in 
increasing the size of the animal. After losing all reminiscence 
of its former freedom, and with the care of man aiding it, a 
sudden improvement was the result in size and adaptability. 
From such period it has been improved into innumerable races 
and breeds. 
Instances of Increase in Size from Scientific Breeding .— 
Mr. Anthony Hammond, in a recent issue of Bailey's Mag¬ 
azine, states that during the last 150 years the thorough¬ 
bred has increased three inches in height. In the racing vol¬ 
ume of the Badminton library, it is stated that Poland has 
produced several thoroughbreds sixteen hands in height. Mr. 
Hammond also states that whereas fourteen hands was formerly 
the recognized standard for the hackneys, previous to 1885 it 
was increased to fifteen hands three inches, and at the latter 
date the R. A. Society was induced to allow entries in the hack¬ 
ney class of animals of that height and over. 
Again, a Mr. T. Dykes says that “ the primitive Clydesdale 
