408 
W. L. WILLIAMS. 
VETERINARY INSPECTION OF BREEDING STALLIONS. 
By W. L. Williams, V. S., 
Professor Surgery and Zoo technics, New York State Veterinary College. 
Paper read at the National Horse Breeders’ Meeting, at Chicago. 
Civilized governments throughout the world have always 
endeavored by special or what we might call “ class ” legisla¬ 
tion, to afford certain protection or bestow more or less impor¬ 
tant favors upon agriculture, because from this source civilized 
man draws his first prime necessities of life, food and clothing. 
In its widest sense, agriculture includes the breeding and 
rearing of plants and animals, the first being fundamental and 
necessary to the existence of the latter. 
The complexity of agricultural operations gradually increase 
from the lower plant production to the highest forms of domes¬ 
ticated animals, the pinnacle of agricultural pursuits being 
reached in horse breeding. 
Modern advancement in locomotory devices has only served 
to elevate horse breeding to a yet higher plane, steam, electri¬ 
city, and other mechanical forces tending rapidly to eliminate the 
lower classes of horses, or render them valueless without mater¬ 
ially affecting the usefulness of the higher types. Recently 
there was abundant demand for any type of horse, so that a 
breeder could sell inferior animals at remunerative figures and 
the higher classes at a great profit. Now, the breeder cannot 
find market for culls, and needs rely wholly upon superior ani¬ 
mals, and the production of these with sufficient uniformity is 
the task at present facing him. 
The ideal breeder’s horse of to-day is an animal of the genus 
equus, possessing a sufficiency of power, speed, endurance and 
beauty, combined with a degree of intelligence fitting him to 
largely accomplish his work without detailed human supervi¬ 
sion, and capable of becoming a sympathetic friend and com¬ 
panion to man. With the latter qualities, steam, electricity and 
compressed air do not enter into competition, but the destruc¬ 
tion of value of low erade horses increases the complexity of 
