31 
legs liberty of action. The shoulder should be somewhat round and 
full, not thin and confined as many imagine. Never breed from either 
mare or stallion with a decidedly bad shoulder. An animal may dispense 
with almost every other point of excellence and yet be of some value, 
but if it has a bad shoulder it bears so thoroughly the stamp of worth¬ 
lessness, that nothing else can make amends for that fundamental mal¬ 
formation. If your mare is tolerable in her shoulder but not very good, 
endeavor to find a stallion particularly excellent in this respect. 
“ The forelegs and shoulders being right, action usually follows ; but 
this being a very important point do not take it for granted, but subject 
the matter to your strictest scrutiny. For my own part, I think so 
much of action in a horse, that the most fabulous combinations of beau¬ 
ty, breeding, temper and shape, would not induce me to buy one that did 
not possess this quality. It may be laid down as a general rule, that the 
horse ought, if possible, to be a better animal than the mare. Then there 
is the difficulty, even when a horse of tried excellence is found, of dis¬ 
covering whether his points and his blood are suited to the mare. The 
art and science of breeding first rate horses is not to be mastered without 
much thought, trouble and research. There is no royal road to it. 
“ He who wishes, in spite of every obstacle, to attain golden results, 
must adopt a course entirely antagonistical to the too common one of 
putting some mare, because he happens to have her, to some horse be¬ 
cause he happens to come into his yard. He must never breed from a 
bad mare or a bad horse, nor must he grudge a few dollars spent in se¬ 
curing the best of either sex within his reach. A judicious outlay of 
capital will here assuredly not fail to reap the reward which has attended 
the improvement of every other description of stock .” 
LONG AND MIDDLE WOOL SHEEP.—No. of Entries, 11. 
Judges — Allen H. Atwater, Oak Grove; Ebenezer Brigham, Blue 
Mounds ; Stephen Moore, Watertown. 
Best South Down buck, over two years old ; N. B. Clapp, Kenosha. $4. 
Best Leicester buck, under two years old ; N. B. Clapp, Kenosha. $3. 
Best three buck Lambs (South Down) ; N. B. Clapp, Kenosha. $3. 
Best three Ewes (South Down) ; N. B. Clapp, Kenosha. $4. 
Best three Ewe Lambs (South Down) ; N. B. Clapp, Kenosha. $3. 
