412 
W. L. WILLIAMS. 
from the Mississippi Valley to the Rocky Mountains, it recov¬ 
ers, and its progeny fails to “ inherit ” the malady. 
Rickets may cause ringbones and spavins in progeny of the 
best horses extant, but place the affected animals under non-rick- 
ety environments and their progeny do not inherit spavin. 
Yet careful study would probably show that heredity frequently 
exerts an influence in producing blindness and spavins. Which 
of the blind, spavined or ringboned animals are “sound” as 
breeders remains to be determined, and these questions should 
receive due investigation. If we by ignorance or abuse render 
an animal “ unsound,” the justice would be more poetic if the 
owner were barred from the breeding of horses, rather than that 
the wronged animal be condemned, and to a degree such a 
breeder excludes himself by making his efforts financially bur¬ 
densome. 
By a determined effort and hearty support efficient inspect¬ 
ors could soon be procured. 
The chief objects to be attained by efficient veterinary ex¬ 
amination of stallions would be to encourage the use of high 
class sires and to repress the inferior ones. 
With many special breeders official approval of stallions by 
competent inspectors is quite superfluous, as they already know 
fairly well a good horse. 
But the great mass of horses are and must always be bred 
and raised by farmers who keep but few mares and put them to 
the double use of breeding and working. This is the econom¬ 
ical method of breeding, as the colt at weaning time has cost 
the owner but little beyond the stallion fee. It is to this class 
that the guidance of the efficient veterinary inspector is of great¬ 
est advantage. As a class, these farmers are not good judges of 
stallions—they see too few of them and study the subject too 
little. 
In the recent horse-breeding craze, they like many would-be 
professional breeders, were led astray in many ways. 
Among some breeds the fact that a sire had been u imported ” 
was a sufficient guaranty, though the animal might have been 
