sW: wm^ Sj mm.. mm: ■..\fj f ;,■ ■>.\ ,, u^,'*" :uM ^\tiM£M 3i^ ■5 t,. ''"■^^adStt -:..»'rc' .U' ■-..«..>■ :^' ,^1'?^. ES'i^^^ Webster Fnm- Medicine- Cumr, Jicineat \ <. 1 ii>ammimi.i:im--w 1] in...,i,i im' ):iMf.. j.j.uhuiii -].'„ L'.i.«Lj.ti. ..Liiiri.. .j.i'.'in'ii. ^k/;"nijj,t.-,^|i|!H'j ..jujj .-.',^^i in-rrm.iii AMERICAN Roadsters AND TROTTING HORSES. BEING A SKETCH OF THE TROTTING STALLIONS OF THE UNITED STATES, AND A TREATISE ON THE BREEDING OF THE SAME, WITH AN APPENDIX SHOWING THE PEDIGREES AND BREEDING, SO PAR AS KNOWN, OF ALL TROT- TERS THAT HAVE A RECORD IN 2:35 OR BETTER, AND CONTAINING MUCH PRACTICAL MATTER RELATING TO THE BREAKING, MANAGEMENT AND TREATMENT OP TROTTING AND BREEDING STOCK. Illustrated with Photo-Views of the Representative Stallions of the Past and Presenl. By H. T. HELM, COUNSELOR AT LAW. CHICAGO : RAND, McNALLY & CO. 1878. 'X2 \1 ' Entered according to Act ol' Congress, iu the year 1878. by RAND. McNALLY & CO., in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. D. C. TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAUK Introduction, 5 Chapter I. Breeding Problem — Heredity — Selection — Cross- breeding — In-breeding — Development, - - f) Chapter II. Trotting Philosophy — Mental and Physical Organ- ism, 53 Chapter III. Racing Blood, 77 Chapter IV. The Pacing Element, 93 Chapter V. Sources of Trotting Blood — Messenger — Bellfounder — Duroc — St. Lawrence — Bashaws — Canadians, etc., etc., 106 Chapter VI. Hambletonian, - - 15j Chapter VII. Volunteer, 181 Chapter VIII. Florida, - - 200 Chapter IX. Administrator, - - - - - - -312 Chapter X. Alhambra and Messenger Duroc, - - • 226 Chapter XI. Everett and the Star-Hambletonians, - - - 240 Chapter XII. Alexander's Abdallah, and his Descendants, - 262 Chapter XIII. Clay Hambletonians — George Wilkes — Knicker- bocker — Peacemaker — Blackstone — Black's Ham- bletonian — Hambletonian Prince — Idol and Electioneer, 291 Chapter XIV. Hambletonians — In-bred Abdallahs — Lakeland Ab- dallah — Stephen A. Douglas — Lysander, - - 311 CJhapter XV. Other Sons of Hambletonian — Cuyler — Happy Medium — Duke of Brunswick — Middletown — Guy Miller — Logan — Seneca Chief — Willie Schepper, 330 Chapter XVI. Abdallahs, not Hambletonians, of Male and Female De.scent. 335 Chapter XVII. Champions, 343 Chapter XVIII. Royal Georges, 351 Chapter XIX. Bashaws and Clays, 367 (Chapter XX. Smuggler, 387 Chapter XXI. Governor Sprague, 399 Chapter XXII. Mambrino Chief, 416 (3) IV TABLE OF CONTENTS. Chaj'ter XXIII. Descendants of Mambrino Chief — Lady Thorn — Mambrino Patchen — Ericsson — Clark Chief — Woodford Mambrino — North Star Mambrino — Idol — Mambrino Star — and others to the present date, 488 Chai'TEH XXIV. Blackwood — Swigert — Drence in my methods of study and investigation pursued. Some regard it as a matter of delicacy to write or speak of the respective merits of other people's stock — and it is said that this stal- lion business is a sensitive spot : I have no such feeling. All breed- ers have a common interest in the general improvement of stock in this countrj', and information relative to the subject is the property of all who can fairly obtain it. If a stallion possesses qualities unknown to the public, they look, in great part, to the stock journals to learn his value; and if a rank has been given to or claimed for an animal which is not justified by his merits, any o»>R desiring to read, has a just right to correct infor- INTRODUCTION. Vll luation or opinions on the subject. Horses, in this resjiect, are no better or more sacred than inen; and reputation should be measured by their deeds and character. The reputation of an animal is largely dependent upon its owner. Many horses of great merit are not so known to the public, because their o^^^^ers do not employ all the arts and appliances that pertain to the business to bring them famously into notice. When I have found such an animal, I have not hesitated to disclose to my readers some glimmer of his concealed light. On the other hand, it is equally true that by dint of artful advertising, and the employment of cunning devices — the ways of which are without number, and past finding out to those whose interests lead them to be dvij^ed — many animals have for a time secured a fame and prominence which gathered money into the pockets of their shrewd and unscrupulous managers, but whose real merits were so meagre as to give no reward to the enterprise, or return for the money of their misled patrons. Where I have encountered any such as these, my pen has not failed to prick the bubble that swelled with their great nothingness. I deal with facts as I obtain them, and in opinions as I hold them. It is not believed that we have yet bred a stallion so near perfection that we may not discuss his merits, and refer to his favilts if he have them. Some exception can perhaps be taken to the best stallion we have seen. Administrator, Cuyler, Florida, Volvuiteer, Almont, Thorndale, Daniel Lambert, Blackwood and Governor Sprague, and the many others described herein, are all good horses, and great stal- lions, but to each some just exception may be properly taken, yet their merits are so great, that their respective owners need feel in no way sensitive because they can not be pronounced absolutely perfect. It will be seen that while T have found and pointed out defects when they existed, my work has been mainly devoted to portraying excel- lences and the better traits. This results from the fact that I write of the best and most distinguished horses of oui- day, rather than those which only exhibit infirmities. Inasmuch as it has been my aim to make each subject as complete in itself as possible without reference to its being a part of an entire treatise, there will be found very frequent repetitions of similar matter both in facts and in application of principles advanced, and in each of two instances I have repeated a page or more in verbis. Such repetitions may occupy much space, but the recurrence to the matter thus brought out in new relations will not be without its value. Some Vlll INTKUDUCTION. of iny positions have been newly taken, and I have deemed it wise that the proper evidences accompany them in each case respectively. In iny reference to time records, I have used the tables which have been prepared for the Stock Journals, three of them in number, and as they do not altogether agree, I wish it understood that allowance must be made theiein for any imperfections or errors of recortis. It is proper that I should state that in the pursuit of the studies which have resulted in this work, and in the preparation of the treatise itself, I have made free use of all the cui-rent books, journals and other literature of the day bearing- on the subject under consideration. The Stud Books and volumes of the Troffim/ Ti<' having selected our breeding pair with a view to the transmission of a peculiar form of the head or sliape of the ear, we find in the produce that few, and possibly none possess the peculiarity which we have sought to perpetu- ate, we are apt to lose faith in the power of heredity. And yet it would be an argument afifaens< the uniform operation of this law were the product all to possess the peculiarity which distinguished the sire and dam, for this was an exceptional feature; and the fact that the pigs possessed, in lieu of this peculiar mark, the character that belonged to their ancestors in general, is rather a testimony to the inherent power of heredity than otherwise. Were our pair of pure Essex swine to produce Poland-China or lierkshire or York- ehirc pigs, there would be room for suspicion, and for complaint that the laws of heredity had been violated ; but such a transgression of Nature's law so rarely occurs, that when it does take place, we may properly call the result a LAWS OF HEREDITY. 11 *' sport." Hence the failure of an individual to reproduce features that are pecii- liar to itself, or of a pair of individuals, distinguished for the same peculiarity, to transmit it to the otfspring, should excite no surprise in the mind of the hreeder. Heredity transmits with certainty only -what has hecome a fixed character in the race. Sports, accidental variations, and individual peculiarities, only occur in opposition to this law, and their transmission is at best uncer- tain. Heredity may be depended on to govern the general characteristics which determine the species, and the less general ones, which distinguish the breed, but when we come to individual characteristics, which have never acquired a general character in the ancestry, it frequently fails. In short, the transmission of the greater share of all the characteristics is a thing of uni- versal occurrence, but their transmission in toto is an ideal conception that is . never realized ; and only in proportion as the ancestry has assumed a fixed and unvarying type, do we find this ideal of the effect of heredity approxi- mated. That peculiarity called atavism, or reversion, so often noticed in our domesticated animals, and which has so frequently set at naught the calcu- lations of the breeder, has often been quoted as an illustration of the failure of the law of heredity; but it is, in fact, only a tribute to its power. By selec- tion, change of climate or of nutrition, or by crossing, or by all of these means combined, we may succeed in obliterating certain well-defined characteristics, and in modifying a given type, until the new form or character that we have created will, in its turn, be transmitted with reasonable certainty ; but suddenly the germ that has lain dormant for so many generations asserts itself, and, greatly to our surprise, the characteristics of the original stock will reappear. These cases of reversion most frequently occur when cross-breeding is resorted to. The counter currents of hereditary influence, which are by this means brought into contact, having a common origin, awaken to life the germ which has for generations been a silent factor in each of the newly-created breeds, and enables it to again assume control of the organism. In addition to the general and well-defined operation of the laws of heredity to which we have alluded, its operations in the transmission of individual characteristics, although not clearly defined, and never to be depended upon, are often wonderful. The son is frequently, in some respects, the exact dupli- cate of the father, and the daughter of the mother. Sometimes a peculiarity which belonged to the grandsire lies dormant in the son, but crops out as strong as ever in the second or third generation. Again : we find peculiarities transmitted from father to daughter, and from mother to son, and even especial sexual characteristics transmitted by the father through a daughter to a grandson, or by the mother through a son to a granddaughter ; but it is worthy of remark, that in no case are all the peculiarities of any one individ- ual transmitted. Indeed, it would be strange were it otherwise, because each individual is the joint product of two other individuals, each endowed with peculiarities of its own; and that each should transmit itself as an entirety is' absolutely impossible. Neither do we find in the individual so produced a blending of these peculiarities in exact proportion — as one might theoretically argue would be the result were the parents of equally well estab- 12 THE BREEDING PROBLEM. lisliecl types — but rather that in some respects the offspring resembles the fatlier, in otliers the; mother; in some forminc^ a partial or exact mean between the two; and in still others we find the produce utterly unlike either, giving it an individuality or character of its own. We might illustrate this by instances from liic experience of every breeder, but it is not necessary. The effect has been ())).served by all who have given any attention whatever to the subject of breeding. The foregoing extract is taken from a very able and philosophical article in the National Live Stock Journal^ and as this matter of the certain transmission of acquired qualities, and the fact that such qual- ities can also be and are acquired and changed as the result oi judicious selections and training in the hands of the intelligent breeder and handler lies at the threshold of the subject of breeding trotting horses, I have deemed it proper to present my readers here with various extracts both from the same series and other articles in that and other journals. It is a subject that is worthy of our most careful con- sideration. Where animals in a state of nature are not disturbed in the enjoyment of the conditions under which they have existed for ages, as the American bison, or buft'alo, the elk, the deer, the wolf, etc., the uniformity which prevails among all the individuals of the race is remarkable; and all the peculiarities of structure, color and character are transmitted from generation to generation with almost unerring certainty ; and here the maxim of the breeder, that " like produces like," scarcely ever meets with an exception. Such animals are, in the truest sense of the word, tlioroughbred, or purely bred. There has been no commingling of blood, or crossing of various strains, to give the race a composite character, and hence, when we have seen the sire and dam, we can toll with certainty what the progeny will be. Were any of our domesti- cated animals t7ioroughbreds, in the sense that the bison, the elk or the deer are thoroughbreds, the breeding problem would be a simple one, and like would produce like as long as the conditions of life remained the same. The same principle holds true in the reproduction of vegetable life. An absolutely pure seed reproduces its kind, but when cross fertilization has once taken place, the result is uncertain. If the flower of the Baldwin apple tree be fertilized by the pollen of a Winesap, the seed from this union will produce neither the one nor the other. It will be an apple, because both of its parents were apples; but as thej' were of diflerent varieties, or forms, or character, so the produce will have a character of its own, differing from; both of its ances- tors. And even if the stigma of the Baldwin be fertilized by pollen of its own kind, the result is uncertain, because the parent is itself the result of cross-fertili- zation. The api)lication of this principle to the crossing of diflerent races of domestic animals is evident, and we shall have occasion to refer to it here- after. But, notwithstanding the uniformity of which we have spoken, in the produce of absolutely pure or unmixed races, there arises occasionally what LAWS OF HEREDITY. 13 is termed an accidental variation from the established type — a, sport, as it is frequently called. The color of the American deer is of a fixed type, and a departure from this color is justly regarded as a great curiosity; yet, a white deer is occasionally found ; and so of other animals in which the color is an equally well-established characteristic. Man has five fingers on each hand and five toes on each foot, and in this particular the race is uniform ; and yet a " sport " is occasionally found, where the number of fingers or toes is increased to six. When these accidental variations once occur, they are liable, under favorable conditions, to be transmitted by inheritance ; but under the ordinary operations of Nature's laws, when the conditions of life remain un- changed, these anomalies usually disappear within one or two generations, and the normal and characteristic type of the race is resumed. A well-authen- ticated instance of the transmission of accidental variations is found in the oft-quoted case of Edward Lambert, whose whole body, with the exception of the face, the soles of the feet, and the palms of the hands, was covered with a sort of horny excrescence, which was periodically moulted. His six sons all inherited the same peculiarity, and the only one of the six that survived trans- mitted it, in turn, to all his sons. This abnormal character was transmitted through the male line for six generations, and then disappeared. We have also several well-authenticated cases of the transmission, for a few generations, of an abnormal number of fingers or toes ; as in the case of the Colburn family where each of the members had a supernumerary toe and finger, Avhich anomaly was transmitted, although irregularly, for four generations before it entirely disappeared. The writer is personally cognizant of a case in which the second and third toe of each foot were united, and which anomaly has been transmitted for three generations to one only, out of an average of eight descendants in each family. But, as before remarked, when the conditions of life remain unchanged, these anomalies almost invariably disappear, and the descendants resume the typical character of the race. From the fact that these accidental variations have shown themselves to be, in a limited degree, transmissible by heredity, we may infer that if selections were made with a view to their perpetuation, they might ultimately become fixed characters — but of this more hereafter. Indeed, there is a considerable weight of evidence tending to show that even variations produced by mutila- tion, or by other artificial means, are sometimes transmitted, especially when the mutilation has been intimately connected with the nervous system. Dr. Prosper Lucas gives numerous well-authenticated instances of this character, and is decidedly of the opinion that variations or mutilations that are the result of disease, are transmissible. That eminent scientist. Dr. Brown- Sequard, gives an interesting account of some experiments with guinea pigs. By an operation upon a certain nerve, he produced epileptic convulsions, and the produce of the animals upon w' hich this operation was performed mani- fested the same symptoms. But notwithstanding the numerous instances given by the eminent authorities above quoted, we are of the opinion that the cases of the transmission of these artificially produced variations are so rare as to be practically of no account in the calculation of the breeder. The law which governs the transmission of these accidental variations, 14 THE BREEDING PROBLEM. whether they be the result of a " sport " or of external inflnences, appears to be, that wlion such variations from the. connnon tyi)e are in antujijonisni to tlie conditions of liie to wliich the individual is suhjeclcd, the variations are not perpetuated; while, on the oilier !i;nid, if they an; in conformity to the exist- ing wants or conditions, add natural selection, and a survival of the fittest will tend to perpetuate them. From the foregoing it is evident that the laws of heredity tend to reproduce in the progeny the character of the ancestors ; and that when the ancestry is of a fixed and uniform type, the maxim that " like produces like " admits of few exceptions. Yet there are exceptions even here, as we have seen in the case of sports ; and the modifications produced by changed conditions of life, adaptation to new uses, and new modes of subsistence, tend to vary what, under the operation of the unrestricted laws of heredity, would fix a given type, and leave the breeder's art powerless to effect change or improvement. As to the results to be attained from the employment for breeding' purposes, of animals that from accident or unaccountable cause exhibit marked peculiarities, either physical or mental, or when they possess great excellencies or great and serious defects or vices, the following principles and facts taken from an able article in the same journal, and written by a medical gentleman, are expressed in terms both instructive and entertaining: "Where two races of men, or species of animals, are crossed, the superior race or species generally predominates. The same rule holds with regard to crosses of the same race or species ; the superior blood taking precedence over the inferior, all other things being equal. In the laws of transmission by descent are doubtless to be found the secret of the rise and decadence of nations, and the improvement and retrogression of stock. Race after race of men have risen to a high plane of civilization, and then again deteriorated to almost savage barbarism, being overcome or supi^lanted by others often of a higher degree of intelligence than the supplanted race had ever attained. An instance of this is seen in the native American or red man being overcome by the more highly endowed European. The Malayan and Papuan races are fast retrograding ; being examples of tlie dying-out process. Modern Arabians, Tur]vs, Eg^'ptians, Italians, and even Greeks, are known to be far inferior, in every essential particular, to their progenitors; the Anglo-Saxon, Slavonic and Teutonic races are rapidly ab.sorbing them, and taking their place, and the time is not far distant when those ancient nations will be known only in history. Without further referring to these laws, as relating to the physiological changes at present being developed among the races of the earth, it is sufficient to say that, from the present prospect, the nations possessing the greatest admixture of Slavonic, Teutonic, Celtic, Pelasgic and Iberian elements will continue to be in the ascendant; while, doubtless, as these elements separate or approach their original type of the race, they will decline in many important characteristics. This theory, exemplified by the thorough admixture of blood (within our LAWS OF HEREDITY. 15 race), may, and perhaps does, furnish a solution of the secret of the prosperity of the Aryan race. In other words, a correct theory may be formulated thus : That the most prosperous nation is that in which there is the least percentage of marriages between near relatives, and also the least between persons of difterent races. Numerous instances, tending to establish the correctness of this theory, both as to man and animals, might be adduced ; and much evi- dence, botli of a positive and negative character, could be presented to sup- port this view. Of the latter kind, may be offered the acknowledged want of physical stamina, as well as frequent infertility, of the Mulatto and Mestizo — the women of the Papuan race, after crossing with the European, are nearly all barren, or, if they have offspring, they are much enfeebled, botli physically and mentally. It is known that the progeny of a cross between the Christian and Jew, or other Semitic race, is almost universally more or less enfeebled. To such an extent had this obtained in the French province of Algeria, that a committee of the Climatological Society of France, sent to Algeria to investi- gate the subject, otficially reported to their Government that, in the acclimati- zation of Europeans in that country, alliances should not be allowed, under any circumstances, with the Arab race, as it was in process of deterioration, and final extinction ; while intermarriage with the Latin races, planted on the shores of the Mediterranean (Spaniards, Italians and Maltese), should be encouraged, as they showed a much higher degree of fertility and vitality. The Jew holds it to be a religious duty not to intermarry with the Aryan race ; and it is perhaps owing to tlieir knowledge of these physiological facts that they discourage such alliances. In animals, the mule, or any mongrel breed, is more or less defective in some of the characteristics of the original species. As a rule they are sterile. Attempts have recently been made to bring the theory or laws of transmis- sion by descent into disrepute, by assuming that, in accordance with these laMS, a one-legged man should procreate a one-legged offspring. But the learned and indefatigable physiologist, Dr. BroAvn-Sequard, has recently made some singular discoveries upon tliis sul)ject, which go far toward showing that even tliis apparent impossibility may be overcome. Brown-Sequard does not as yet chiim that the one-legged breed is to be looked for at a very early day; but he has demonstrated, by a series of conclusive experiments on Guinea pigs (liis favorite animals for experiment), that injuries to parents do result in the production of offspring with analogous lesions. I will give, briefly, some of his conclusions concerning the hereditary transmission to animals of morbid states, caused, in one or the other of the parents, by injury to the nervous sj-stem. 1*^. A change in the shape of the ear in animals born of parents in which such a change was the result of a division of the cervical sympathetic nerve. 2d. A partial closure of the eyelids in animals born of jiarents in which that state of the eyelids had been caused, either by section of the cervical sympathetic, or removal of superior cervical ganglion. 3d. UxojMhahnia in animals born of parents in which an injury to the rcxf/forin body had produced that protrusion of the ey(;ba]l. ■ 4ith. Ha^matoma and dry gangrene of the ears in animals born of jjarenis in 16 THE BREEDING PROBLEM. which the alterations resulted from an injury to the restiform body, near the nib of the calamus. 5t.h. Absence of two toes out of the three of the hind leg, and sometimes all three, in animals whose parents had eaten ttieir hind-leg toes, which had become antesthetic from a section of the sciatic nerve, or of that nerve and the crural. 6th. Appearance of various morbid states of the skin, hair of the neck and fiicc, in animals born of parents having similar alterations in the same parts, produced by injury to the sciatic nerve. In regard to these last cases, Brown-Sequard concludes that the sciatic nerve in the congenitally toeless animal has inherited or acquired the power of transmission by passing through all the difterent morbid states which had existed in one or other of the parents, and that this power in the parents was received through the central end of the nerve, from the time of division till after its reunion with the peripheric end. Hence, if this view is correct, it is not simply the power of performing a single action Avhich is inherited, but that of performing a series of actions at a proper time, and in their proper order. In my opinion, what is most likely transmitted, in nearly if not all cases of hereditary transmission, is the morbid or peculiar state of the nervous system. Therefore, when we consider how closely the moral is related to tlic nervous system, we are not so much surprised at the growing tendency to recurrence of nervous or mental diseases — those states which so imperiously demand narcotics and stimulants — as also at the remarkable liercditary ten- dency to crime and pauperism. In a paper recently read before the New York Charities Aid Association, by Dr. Harris, a most remarkable instance of the hereditary transmission of crime, etc., was presented in the case of the wonum Margaret. Attention was first called to it from the fact that a certain county in Northern New York contained so large a percentage of criminals and paupers — it having been officially reported that one-tenth of the entire population were of these two classes. Upon investigation, for the purpose of determining the cause of this state of affairs, it was found that, niore than seventy years ago, a girl, having no other name than that of Margaret, first made her appearance in that region, nothing being known of her ancestors. She was a vagrant at an early age. There being no poor-house in the county at which she could be kept, she roamed through the country, begging from neighbors and others, never having a home, nor receiving an education nor any proper instruction. At an early age she began to bear children — illegiti- mate, of course — who became paupers, like herself. Since that time, about nine hundred descendants have been traced to this outcast woman. Of this prog- eny more than two hundred stand recorded as ci-iminals, and a large number of the remainder are known to be idiots, lunatics and drunkards. Virtue was unknown to any of them of either sex. In one generation tlicre were twenty children, three of whom died young; of tlie remaining seventeen, nine were criminals, liaving been sent to Slate prisons for aggregate terms of fifty years, and the rest were almost constant inmates of jails, prisons and alm.s-houses. Animals Avhich have accjuired certain peculiar qualities, or perfection of senses, through habit or training, or both, possess the poAver of transmitting LAWS OF HEREDITY. 17 those pecnliarities to tlieir offspring. For example, the wolf, possessing a most remarkably acute sense of smell, when crossed by the union of a clog ■with a female wolf, results in a progeny with a marked excellence of scent. Of course traces of other wolf characteristics, etc., are, to a greater or less extent, found in the progeny, through successive generations, such as resem- hlance in form, countenance or expression, disposition, etc. Domestic life, to some extent, softens their savage nature; but there is one peculiarity that always attaches to them, and is retained for many successive generations — which is their suspicion. When a dog of this cross is called by his master, no matter how familiar he may be M^ith him, he will never approach him in a straight line, as dogs usually do, but will take a more or less zigzag course. It is said such dogs never wholly lay aside this peculiarity. It may be stated, as an incontrovertible proposition, that nearly, if not all, the inclinations resulting from education, climate, mode of life, or food, after having been converted into fixed habits, and cultivated for two or three suc- cessive generations, become hereditary, and are capable of being transmitted.^ The descendants will often so display them from birth that it is impossible to distinguish the acquired qualities from those which are more inherent in their constitution. Hence, it is obvious that in those animals which have been able (by reason of local advantages, etc., etc.) to freely cultivate and develop their faculties aud powers, individuals may transmit to their offspring dispositions and qualities, both of body and mind, superior to those with which they them- selves were naturally endowed. Naturally, shepherd dogs seldom have a fine nose. For generations they were scarcely ever called to exercise the sense of scent ; hence, it became obtuse. Although they are quick of perception, hearing and sight, and natu- rally possessed of an extraordinary amount of intelligence, augmented by constant association with their master, aud notwithstanding their docility, which is inborn, it is nearly impossible to find a good hunting dog among them, for the sole reason that they are usually deficient in that most essential quality for that use — that of scent. Yet I have known of instances where the shepherd dog has shown evidence of the possession of an acute sense of scent, and, in hunting quail or chicken, nearlj--, if not quite, equal to most pointers and setters; but this was the result of cultivation and training through suc- cessive generations. A peculiarity in this regard — which should be observed "by breeders of improved stock — is, that among qualities or habits, those which are most certainly acquired, and afterward transmitted hereditarih% may, and often do, assume an equal character of spontaneity with the disposition and qualities most inherent in the animal. True, those races of dogs which have heen trained for several successive generations to seize and fetch game, mani- fest, from their birth almost, these two dispositions. Yet, it must be admitted that it is not strictly natural to them ; on the contrary, the more natural incli- nation of this carnivorous animal would be to seize and devour the game. In the well-trained dog, however, these dispositions to kill and eat become weaker, and will finally disappear entirely when discouraged and neglected for several generations. But equally so do those which proceed even more dii-ectly from nature. Take, for instance, the wild rabbit ; his natural disposi- 18 THE BREEDING PROBLEM. tion is to burrow in the ground ; by taming and cultivation in a warren for several generations, lie ceases to burrow — a part of his natural instinct being effaced, and which will only reappear when a continued recurrence of wanta makes him appreciate its necessity again. The laws of hereditary transmission also govern the more subordinate, aa well as the dominant, characteristics ; hence, fecundity, longevity, peculiar idiosyncrasies, as Avell as purely personal traits, become established and trans- missible, and it appears, to some extent at least, independent of mode of living, race, climate, food or profession. Many instances might be given in proof of these statements, were it deemed necessary. Longevity, which i» capable of being extended or diminished, owing to selection or crosses, does not depend upon race, mode of life, or climate, so much as upon heredity. The general average of life may be, and doubtless is, affected by local causes, such as hygiene, climate and civilization ; but individual longevity is almost entirely independent of these influences. Longevity may be said to result from an internal principle of vitality, which certain persons or animals receive at birth or time of conception. Again, some families become prema- turely aged, their hair turning gray, and their physical and mental powers giving way at a comparatively early age. Some families appear to be endowed with a peculiar immunity from certain forms of disease, and especially so of contagious diseases. Heredity exerts a controlling influence over the repro- ductive functions. Some families of men and animals are remarkable for their fecundity. Other families, again, have a peculiar voice ; the females speaking like males, or rough and coarse. Stammering, lisping, or speaking with a nasal twang, is characteristic of some families. There are families of musicians, who almost invariably possess a fine ear for music. Others, again, are notably defective in this particular, having no ear at all for music. Loquacity is characteristic of some families. Dr. Lucas observes that " most children of talkative parents are chatterboxes from infancy." In some fami- lies of horses nearly all are found to be natural pacers, etc., etc. The hereditary transmission of disease, or, at least, a predisposition thereto, as well as anomalies of organization, can not be denied. The case of Edward Lambert is a well authenticated instance. His whole body, with the excep- tion of his hands, face and soles of the feet, was covered with horny excres- cences. He was the father of six children, all of whom, from an early age, presented the same peculiarity of the skin. The only one of the children who survived to manhood transmitted it to all his sons ; thus it passed through several generations. What appears strange in this case is, that the sons only were aflected, and alone capable of transmitting it. We have in the horse history of this country an instance very simi- lar to the foregoing. Winthrop Messenger, a son of Imported Mes- senger, and the one of that family from which the many distinguished Messengers of the State of Maine descended, was attacked with grease or scratches, which, from neglect and want of care, became chronic, and continued to his death in a greatly aggravated form. It has LATVS OF HEREDITY. 19 marked Ms descendants for several generations, and amounts to almost a family characteristic. Racliitis, tuberculosis, albinism, ectrodactyliErm and polydactylism, labia leporena, as well as many other deviations from the natural type, may become developed, established, and then hereditarily transmitted. These facts are not only of interest as applied to the human family, but they are of great import- ance to those who are engaged in the breeding and improvement of all kinds of animals, as from these we determine that all deviations from the original type, whether the result of excess or arrest of organic development, are hered- itary and transmissible, and also that the individual type is but little, if any, less subject to the laws of heredity than the specific or original type. It must be remembered, in this connection, that neither the specific nor individual deviations are always transmitted, as it is well known that sometimes they do not appear to be. Hence, it is questionable whether we must conclude that deviations from the specific type are fixed permanently, or the heredity restricted. Observation leads us to believe that there exists a tendency to return to the original or specific type. This is shown by the case of Colburn, reported by Burdach. Each of this family had a supernumerary toe and finger, the anomaly continuing through four generations. In this case the normal steadily gained upon the abnormal ; as, in the first generation, there was but one with the proper number of toes and fingers to 35 with six ; in the second generation, there was one to 14, and in the third, one to 3 — this shows a rapid return toward the normal type. Having briefly referred to the transmission of anomalies of structure, lon- gevit}", fecundity and idiosyncrasies, etc., as more particularly relating to, or involved in, the very nature of the animal or being as constituted through the process of generation, I now propose to devote a few words to what I conceive to be a more difiicult, as well as more important, phase of the subject under consideration — that of the relation of heredity to more strictly acquired modi- fications; such, for example, as vital or nervous force, mental habits and muscular strength and power, as developed in the nervous and muscular system, through both education and exercise. I do not think there can be a doubt as to the transmission of muscular strength, as well as the difi:erent forms of motor energy. As a type, the Celt excels as a pugilist — there being families of prize-fighters. Formerly, there have been families of athletes, etc., etc. Galton, who has given this subject considerable attention, declares, "that the best oarsmen, wrestlers, athletes, dancers, etc., generally belong to a small number of families, among whom strength and skill are hereditary'." Horse breeders are familiar with the fact, that certain types of the horse possess a superiority of motor energy and muscular strength over others, and try to make their selection in breeding accordingly. It must be admitted, however, that their study of this subject has, heretofore, been top much of an empirical order — their knowledge being derived almost wholly from observa- tion, and not from a proper study of the fixed laws regulating hereditaiy trausmissioo. 20 TPIE BREEDING PEOBLEM. The stock and breeding journals of this country abound Avith in- stances of marked and jieculiar qualities and traits that have been acquired by certain animals, and which are transmitted to their offspring with great uniformity, but in many cases differing in tiie degree of their apparent transmission. It is also very noticeable that in some instances the young progeny seem to have the peculiarities that mark or disthiguish the family to a degree that surpasses even the parents. In some, the habit or peculiarity appears either wanting or deficient in early life, but at a later period develops in full force and intensity, and in some cases the early precocity appears to grow dim or feeble with age. Every one familiar with the different breeds of dogs is aware of the changes that have been wrought in the habits and characteristics of the several families of the canine species — how then- peculiar traits develop and intensify by use and employment, and how rapidly they retrograde by indolence and a change in employment. A pair of young Collies or shepherd dogs introduced on a farm where there are no others of the same breed and no cattle or sheep to herd, instinctively herd together the ducks and geese, chickens and turkeys on the farm, even to the annoyance of the feathered bipeds. But they must have occupation, for such are their instincts, and if they can not find flocks of sheep they will huddle together the geese of the barn yard and stand guard about them. So of the ycung setter and pointer. My first lessons in chicken shooting on the prairie were taken over a young dog that had neither teacher nor trainer, and he seemed to require none. His hereditary instincts caused him to know which were the right birds and in a little time he would notice no other — a rabbit did not attract his attention any more than a pig or a cat ; but, strange to say, when he was an older dog, and from want of emjiloyment in his favorite line — that of point- ing birds — he had learned to chase rabbits in his idle hours, he seemed to lose much of the unerring sagacity which led him when very young to seek only the feathered game. He was bred from parents that had been carefully bred for the latter game only. Fox hounds have been so bred that they would run and cry on the track of a fox when very young and give no heed to a rabbit that crossed their path in full sight. From their breeding they were true to the game and spurt for which their parents of the kennel had been kept ; yet every one perhaps knows that the common fox hound will chase labbits as readily and as persistently as anything else if indulged in I SELECTIONS IN BREEDING. 21 that sort of pastime. However, if bred from stock that is kept exclusively for the fox hunt, they are true to their hereditary instincts. "VVe are familiar also with the fact, that the fecundity of certain animals and families is hereditary. Sows will have twelve pigs at a litter whose dams have been alike fruitful for several generations. Cows that bear twins or are habitually large milkers, not only transmit that quality to their own female offspring but transmit to their male off- spring the quality of begetting others with like characteristics. It is well understood, however, that in order to maintain their hereditary qualities in perfection, two things in particular are necessary — one is, that the animal be kept and used for the purpose that calls into requi- sition the peculiar qualities or characteristics for which the animal or breed is noted. As the quality was developed in part by use, so it mwst be maintained ; and if allowed to grow idle or indolent and fall into disuse, the quality is lost or greatly impaired, and will not be transmitted to the offspring in the force and positiveness with which it originally existed in the given animal or family. The second consideration or law is, that in cross-breeding the selec- tions be made of such animals as maintain the given quality in like or greater degree, and in whom it has also been used and not lain idle and dormant. It can also be lost or confused by conflicting traits or qualities by cross-breeding into or from families where the trait is lacking, or where conflicting and contrary traits existed. These two points or considerations must be kept constantly in view if we would maintain or transmit the particular qualities desirable in breeding animals. CHANGES WKOUGHT BY SELECTIONS IN BREEDING. All our domestic animals have been, to a great degree, moulded and fashioned by the hand of man. The same uniformity that now characterizes the bison, the elk and the deer, belonged to the horse, the cow, the sheep and the hog, in a state of nature. The ponderous English cart horse, the fleet courser, and the diminutive Shetland pony, are all descended from originals that were as uniform in their characteristics as are the members of a herd of bison upon our Western prairies. The Short-horn, the Hereford, the Devon, the Jersey, and all of the various breeds into which our cattle are now divided, are descended from the same original type. The changed conditions of life to which they have been subjected by domestication— the variety of uses to which they hav« been put, the food upon which they have subsisted, the climate in which they have been reared, and selection for especial uses, have produced the variations which are now so apparent. 22 THE BREEDING PROBLEM. Very much of this divergence is due to climatic influences, which alone are suflicieutly powerful, in the changes of food and of habit which necessarily follow, to account for nearly all the varieties which have been produced. A warm climate and a bountiful supply of nutritious food from birth to maturity promote growth and development, while a scanty supply of food and a rigor- ous climate hare a tendency to retard growth and arrest development. A knowl- edge of the eflects of heat and cold upon growth and development, has been taken advantage of by breeders for the purpose of producing dwarf specimens. The breeder of Bantam fowls is careful to have his chicks hatched late in the season, so that the early approach of cold weather may arrest development. The bleak, barren and tempestuous islands — lying in the high latitude of 59 and 60 degrees — north of Scotland, with their scanty subsistence and long winters, have dwarfed the horse until he appears as the diminutive Shetland pony, while, from the same original, the rich herbage, nutritious grains and mild climate ten degrees further south, on the coast of France, have given us the immense draft horses of Normandy and Flanders. But while climate and the necessarily accompanying influences have done much to cause the divergence which now exists in races that were once uni- form, selection by the hand of man has also been actively at work, in some cases co-operating with the influences of climate, thereby accelerating the trans- formation, and in others counteracting its effect. We have an illustration of this in the horses of Canada. It is quite evident that the causes that have given us the tough, shaggy Canadian pony, if continued without interruption for a succession of generations, and accelerated by the efibrts of breeders in se- lecting animals for the purpose of reproduction, with the same object constantly in view, would, in course of time, give us a race as diminutive as the ponies of the Shetland Islands. But this climatic influence has been retarded and counter- acted by Canadian breeders, who have rejected the smaller specimens for breeding purposes, and have constantly drawn upon the large draft breeds of Europe for fresh crosses. To such an extent has this infusion of fresh blood been carried for twenty-five years past, that the influences of climate have been overpowered, and the progression has been decidedly in the opposite direction. The efforts of Canadian breeders in this direction have been aided materially by the improved condition of agriculture in the Dominion, which has led to a more liberal system of feeding, and more thorough protection from the rigor of the climate. And thus the forces and influences of nature, in some cases aided and in others counteracted by the efforts of man, have constantly l)een at work breaking up the uniformity which originally characterized all our domestic animals, imtil divergence from the original type has become, in many instances, truly wonderful. The influences of selection, in creating divergence from a type singularly uniform, finds a most striking illustration in the case of the domestic pigeon, of which there are now nearly 300 known varieties, more or less distinct, and all descended from the common wild rock pigeon. Among these varieties the divergence is remarkable, not only in the color of the plumage, which in the original is uniform, but in the shape and markings of the various parts. Who would imagine, at first thought, that the Pouters, the Carriers, the Runts, I SELECTIONS IN BREEDING. 23 the Barbs, tlie Fantails, the Owls, the Tumblers, the Frill-backs, the Jacobins, the Trumpeters, etc., and all their sub-varieties, with differences so stroqgly marked, are descended from one common parent stock ? Yet, that this is true, and that all the varieties from the original type have resulted from changed conditions of life, climatic influences and artificial selection and crossing, is generally admitted by naturalists. It is a fact well knowTi among swine breeders that the present breed known as the Poland-China or Magie has been established within the past thirty years mainly by one intelligent and careful breeder wholly by the selection of animals embracing the general qualities of his particular breed that have reference to the peculiar points or characteristics which he sought to impress on his stock. He has at length reached a certain stjde or standard of excellence in tyj^e or quality embracing a large number of points for which this breed are noted and by which they are distinguished from all others. Thus, also, has the breed or family of sheep known as the Oxford Downs become established ; first, from a cross between two distinct breeds, and then successively by careful selections from those embracing the blood of the two respective families. The importance of a careful selection of breeding stock can not be over- -estimated. It is the magic wand with which the breeder may change at will the form of his stock, and perpetuate qualities that have proven of excep- tional value. It has been the principal secret of the success of all who have attained to eminence in the business of breeding, and the most potent of all agents in creating improved breeds. A careful selection of animals of superior merit is essential to improvement in any breed ; and constant attention to the same process is absolutely neces- sary to prevent deterioration after a breed has been formed. The breeder whose admiration for a particular pedigree or family or breed leads him to use all the animals of his favorite race for breeding purposes, without regard to individual merit, is treading upon dangerous ground ; for, notwithstanding the well-established doctrine that the general characteristics of the race are more likely to be transmitted than individual peculiarities, it must always be borne in mind that these peculiarities eire also transmitted with a greater or less degree of certainty ; and that, as we carefully select the best for the purpose of effecting improvement in a breed, we must, with equal care, reject the poorer specimens to prevent retrogression. That the exceptionally bad quali- ties of an individual are quite as likely to be transmitted as the exceptionally good ones, is as well established as any principle inbreeding; and no man who seeks to improve his stock, or even to maintain the degree of excellence already attained, can afford to ignore the importance of a rigid selection of the best. In no department of stock breeding is the influence of heredity and of patient selection with a view to the transmission and improvement of a desired 24 THE BREEDING PROBLEM. quality more apparent, than in the breeding of the trotting horse. Fifty years ago, the American trotting horse, as a breed, was unthought of; and one that could trot a mile in less than three minutes was an anomaly — an accidental or spontaneous variation from the established type. But the ability to trot fast was a desirable quality, and breeders sought to perjietuate it. Animals that excelled the average of the species as trotters were selected to breed from, with a view to perpetuating and intensifying this quality ; but as its possession was at that time an accident — a spontaneous variation — it was found that but few of the immediate descendants of the animals first chosen with a view to breeding fast trotters, could trot faster than their remote ancestors. But when such of them as did show improvement in this direction were again selected for breeding purposes, and coupled together, it was found that, while there were still many failures, the proportion of the descendants that showed improvement in the trotting gait beyond the average of their ancestors, was increased. And so, by selecting from generation to generation, from such families as have shown a tendency to improvement in this quality, we have made some progress toward founding a breed of trotting horses. So generally is the attention of the breeders of trotting horses directed to the " bright particular stars" in the trotting firmament, each year, that we lose sight of the immense number of horses that trot in 2 : 30 to 3 : 50 — a gait that twenty, and even ten years ago, was fast enough to entitle a horse to rank as a creditable performer on the turf; and in our admiration for these great performers we have failed to note the extent to which the average speed of the so-called trotting families has been improved. What horseman who has reached the age of forty years can not remember how very rare three-minute trotters were when he was a boy ! And yet what a large proportion now trot faster than three minutes ! The extent of the improvement which has been efiected will be more appai^ ent by reference to some of our trotting statistics. A list of all the trotters that had made a public record of a mile in 3 : 30 or better during the year 1873, contained the names of 96 horses ; in 1873 it swelled to 106, and in 1874 it included 153 names. During the year 1875 the list was so greatly increased that it numbered 184 horses. In 1876 it reached 225, and in 1877, 284 horses trotted in 3 : 30 or better. But when we confine our observation to the faster classes our progress is still more apparent. Up to the opening of the season of 1874, onlj^ 63 horses had made a record of 2 : 25 or better in harness. With the close of 1877 the number had reached 316. The 2:23 class progressed during the same inter- val, from 34 to 106 ; the 3 : 30 class from 9 to 33 ; and the 3 : 19 class from 3 to 19 — certainly a very encouraging and satisfactory tribute to the skill of American breeders. The records of the oldest prominent trotting course in America shows a gradual but steady increase in the average speed of all the heats trotted at each meeting, from 1866 down to last season — a period of twelve years. Com- mencing in 1866 with 2m 383^8 as the average time in which all the heats were trotted, it has been gradually lowered, until in 1876 it reached 3 : 33. While much of this increase in the average speed of our trotting horses SELECTIONS IN BREEDING. 25 should, in justice, be attributed to improvement in our vehicles and tracks, and to increased skill in the trainer, yet it is undeniable, that by far the greater portion of it has resulted fi-om increased capacity in our horses, bred for two, three or four generations especially with reference to tliis qual- ity ; and it is worthy of especial remark, that, of the 203 horses with a record of 2 : 25 or better, whose breeding can be traced even as far as the sire, over 90 per cent, of them are more or less closely related to one or more of our recog- nized trotting families. Hence, while chance trotters may occasionally be produced, as of yore, through spontaneous variations, our breeders and trainers have found that by confining themselves to the descendants of three or four well-known trotting families, the probabilities of producing fast trotters are infinitely gi'eater than by going outside, for within these families the trotting gait has been culti- vated by selection and use, until heredity has begun to lend its powerful aid in transmitting what Avas originally a spontaneous or accidental superiority ; and the breeder who introduces a single cross in which the trotting gait has not become an inherent quality, only adds to the probabilities of failure, and postpones the day when we shall be able to breed fast trotters Avith certainty. There is, as yet, no necessity for an outcross to promote strength, endurance, and vigor, for some of our trotting families are, in this respect, the peers of any breed of horses in the world ; and there is still sufficient room for selec- tion within these families to correct all the bad effects of close in-breeding. It may possibly be necessary to resort to some crosses outside of these trot- ting families for improvement in some other quality; but there is no outcross that we can possibly make without danger to the transmission and improve- ment of the trotting gait. Even those of our trotters that belong to none of the recognized trotting families are almost invariably the result of selection with a view to this faculty. In almost every case of "breeding unknown" we have found that the dam was " a fast trotter." In short, the more thor- oughly w^e investigate the course of breeding that has produced our trotting horses, the more completely does it confirm the theory of breeding from animals that possess the quality we wish to perpetuate. In the breeding of animals, the one object aimed at is to produce superiority or excellence in the animal for the purpose for which he is produced or kept. The value of a trotting stallion is dependent on his ability to reprodiice, in the highest degree, the qualities of speed and endurance, with plenty of game, courage, style and tractability, in his offspring. It makes no difference how excellent, or how indif- ferent, he may be in all these qualities in himself, his value as a stallion depends on his ability to transmit these cjualities. He may never have shown any excellence as a trotter himself, of which the world at large has any reliable information — as in the case of two notable members of the two prominent trotting families — yet his value becomes established when it is known that he is a producer of trotters of superiority. 26 THE BREEDING PROBLEM. On the other hand, a stallion may be a trotter of the first quality; he may come of the royal lines of blood all commingling; his pedi- gree may be as rich as that of the race-horse that stands at the head of the list for four-miles record; but when, after due trial, he and his family, bred in similar manner, have been found universally to fail in reproducing the great qualities for which he is himself distinguished, he practically ceases to have any value as a stallion, and as a gelding he would earn or sell for more money. Furthermore, experience and observation teach us that in breeding a horse for a great performer on the track or road, we can breed liim in some respects unlike Avhat Ave should if we desired a reproducer of the qualities which constitute a great trotter. The quality and breed- ing of the sire and; the dam enter largely into either case. The sire . sliould have the trotting qualities desired in high degree, and they should be derived from both inheritance and instruction. The dam, if possessed of endurance and pluck, and enough of what we call blood, may be lacking in the inherited trotting quality, yet be capable of producing a trotter of the highest excellence. The dam of Lady Thorn was by Gano, a thoroughbred and a race-horse, and her 3d dam was by a son of a thoroughbred and race-horse, yet there are some horsemen who believe there has been none greater than Lady Thorn. The ready trotting action and habit, in her case, Avas derived from the sire. That her brother, Mambrino Patchen, possesses in large degree the power of transmitting the trotting quality, proves nothing, as Mambrino Chief gave that faculty to his sons more successfully and more universally than any other of his day. That was his forte. In fact, the trotter may be a great performer but lacking in the necessary blood qualities of a sire. Jim Irving was one of the fastest trotters we have yet seen, but he certainly possessed no trotting blood that would have given any promise of success as a sire. He was by Young Melbourne, son of Imported Knight of St. Geoi'ge. Trustee, the horse who trotted a twenty-mile race, acquired a fame for himself and a reputation for his sire, Imported Trustee, for trotting blood that had no just foundation. His performance was all that could be placed to his credit. It is also clear to my mind that the great trotter, Geo. M. Patchen, was a little too near the outer edge of trotting blood to be really a successful sire, although he had capacity in that line, but far less than we should expect from his great ability as a performer, and the celebrity of his own sire. Grafton, is another that belongs to the class bred for a performer and not a reproducer. 1 SELECTION'S IN BREEDING. 27 A horse may also excel as the progenitor of a family of trotting descendants -whose own immediate produce are not so noted in the €xlubition of speed as in the production of fast performers. The case of Hambletonian and his own sons aifords an illustration of this point that is most satisfactory and instructive. The best records attained by any of his own produce are as follows: Dexter, 3:17:^; Nettie, 2:18; Gazelle, 2:21; Jay Gould, 2:21^; Bella, 2:22; Geo. TVilkes, 2:22; Young Bruno, 2:22f; Lady Banker, 2:23; Jas. Howell, Jr., 2:24; and Mattie, 2:24; only ten with records better than 2:25, out of about thirteen hundred and twenty-five sons and daughters. Volunteer, his son, out of a produce that does not, perhaps, equal one- half the number credited to Hambletonian, has twelve performers who have made records of 2:25 and better, viz.: Gloster, 2:17; Bodine, •2:19^; Huntress, 2:20f; Powers, 2:21^; Amy, 2:22^; St. Julien, 2:22i; Trio, 2:23^; VV. H. Allen, 2:23^; Frank Wood, 2:24; Carrie, ^:24^; Alley, 2:244-; and Driver, 2:25. Alexander's Abdallah, another son, produced Goldsmith Maid, that has a record of 2:14; Rosalind, 2:21f ; Thorndale, 2:22^; and Almont, who produced Allie West, that at the age of five years had a record of 2:25. But if we take into the account the descendants of each sire to the third and fourth generation, Hambletonian stands immeasurably supe- rior to Volunteer and all other stallions. We believe Volunteer has not more than a single descendant, except his o^wti immediate get, that has a record of better than 2:30, while the old horse has at least ninety- five descendants, in the male line a/one, that appear in the 2:30 list, and almost every week adds to the number. Judged by the records, therefore, Volunteer stands as the greatest sire of trotters, while, as the progenitor of a family of trotting horses^ his sire, Hambletonian, was very greatly his superior. For all this the great stallion of the family may at some day be found among the sons of Volunteer. The dam has much to do \\dth that question. So universally is this matter understood that the breeder will be deemed a fortunate man who shall produce an animal having the far reaching influence and enduring excellence of Hambletonian, although he never trotted a mile in 2:30, •or gave evidence that he was certainly capable of so doing. In breedino; trotters, we must have reg-ard to the readv trotting: action, as well as to the lasting and improving capacity. A trotting family must not require that the first elements of their trotting gait shall be tauo-ht them ; the v must have it alreadv b v nature and inherit- ance; but, in addition to this, they must, in order that they, attain 28 THE BEEEDING PROBLEM. unto excellence as trotting sires, have a capacity for long-continued training and a high degree of advancement; hence the two great requisites in a family are, first, the natural and ready trotting gait; and, secondly, the lasting and improving capacity. While a trotter and his dam may possess originally only the latter, the sire, if really a great one, should have, by right of inheritance, both. He will not transmit with certainty that which he does not derive from his blood. Moreover, it has been also ascertained that some of the most valua- ble qualities of the trotter are transmitted by either sex with varying degrees of success in different families — in some excelling, and in. some failing, in the male line, and in others exactly the reverse. In some of these cases the fact has only been established by repeated ex- perience, and can with difficulty be traced to any satisfactory cause ; in others, it is the result of well-known and clearly-understood principles.. This fact very greatly affects the value of a stallion. The most notable example of this has been the case of the American Star mares. These were, many of them, superior trotters — as fast as the thirties themselves — and as the dams of great ones, from Hamble- tonian as the sire, their fame is as imperishal^le as his own, while that of the sons is so far eclipsed as to leave their names in comparative obscurity. We shall, as we advance further into our subject, find the true philosophy of the fact last stated to be in that quality of the Duroc blood and conformation, which on the female side yields to the trot- ting qualities of the Messenger sire, but when the sex is reversed runs back in its tendency toward the blood of Diomed, which was. totally lacking in trotting quality. It has been claimed, that of the offspring of Imported Glencoe, the chief value for breeding puq^oses was in the daughters, and in the case of Hambletonian it has gained some currency that the breeding excellence is only on the male side — but of this more hereafter. The stallions Almont, Administrator, Blackwood and Swigert have assumed great prominence as trotting sires, and it begins to attract some atten- tion that their dams were by Mambrino Chief, and also that the most signal success of the former has been with mares by the same sire; and gradually the opinion is gaining ground, that the fame of the Mambrino Chief blood is yet to rest in the superiority of the female side as the dams of trotters and trotting sires — but of this more hereafter. When I come to treat of the value of racing blood, or that of the thoroughbred, as infused or to be infused into the trotter or the trot- SELECTIONS IN BREEDING. 29 ting sire, it will be also seen that the question of sex greatly affects the subject, and as relating to this matter o£ blood forces, as affected by sex, many illustrations will be given. Another important fact should also be kept in mind as one of the incidents to this matter of breeding, which might be said to amount to a law or rule, if its limits and operations could at all times be defined or even understood. Its effects are often seen, and this fact is sometimes only kno^ATi by its visible results, Avhen the causes or principles from which it springs can not clearly be traced. It is what is termed niching^ or the readiness "with which certain strains of blood unite and produce valuable results; or the certainty with which certain crosses almost invariably either succeed or fail. This is an incident of breeding in all its departments. In the breeding of trotters there often occurs what may justly be termed a phenomenon — apparent in its results, but often difficult to account for in principle^ — the case where, in a union of two families of known and positive trotting qualities, the produce totally fails in that one particular in which the sire and dam both excel. The case is similar to that of two powerful acids or chemicals that, separately, prove destructive to many material substances with which they may come in contact, but united, the joint j^roduct is totally harmless — the one entirely neutralizing the other, and thvis two very powerful agents, by a union, forming an inert and worthless substance. Such is often the ease in breeding trotters from families of fixed type, each having in themselves fixed and valuable characteristics. The case of the Bellfovmder and Abdallah blood in some respects furnishes an illustration of this fact, although this may strike some of my readers as a rather rash announcement. Hambletonian himself, great as he deservedly stands, and will continue to stand, in a fame and a reputation that eclipses all others, contemporary or anterior, was limited in the range of his successes, beyond doubt, by the very com- bination of that Bellfounder and Abdallah blood which made him great. The union of these two elements operated to withhold his great excellence in many instances, owing to the fitness of the compo- nent parts for the particular cross not l^eing then, and 2:)erhaps not now, understood — the one refusing to impart its own or to receive the good qualities of the other. In tliis respect, there is no doubt that the Bellfovmder blood, as has been charged, did often Avork against the blood of Abdallah. And this was further exemplified in the immedi- ate crossing of Hambletonian with mares of Bellfounder blood; in 30 THE BREEDING PROBLEM. such cases the lock was still more complete. The results of such re- crossing have not been worth recording, (except in the lesson taught), notwithstanding the Bellfounder stock, as trotting stock, were of no ordinary reputation for grand and powerful trotting action, not equaled, perhaps, by that of any other then existing. The real value and effect of this Bellfounder cross in Hambletonian is, perhaps, so imperfectly understood in all its relations and tendencies as to cause many to regard it as worthless and positively hurtful, while another class esteem it the really valuable cross in this now great and popular family. Hambletonian has been called the key that unlocked the excellence of the Star mares. The real faict is, that the Star mares were the key that unlocked the veteran old horse, and liberated the treasures that the Bellfounder blood had shut up in him. It is beyond doubt, in great part owing to this Bellfounder cross — valuable though it is — that Hambletonian is so uncertain and so unequal in the results of his produce — but of this more at the proper time. The Mambrino and Pilot cross is one noted for bold and free trotting action, yet I have great doubt whether stallions of this cross will not totally fail when bred to mares of the Hambletonian families, although the reverse may be looked to for very valuable results. Such is the fickleness of the matter of sex in many cases. When it is borne in mind that the Hambletonian family is on& of a very fixed type, and very strong and positive in blood, and that a female of such character does not readily yield her individuality in an outcross vnth. one of inferior blood, we will readily understand why these mares are not successful when crossed vpith Mambrino and Pilot, or other stallions of a lower grade of blood. The same principle explains the ready success of the majority of the sons of Hambleto- nian when crossed Avith the lower-bred mares of Mambrino and Pilot grades. Again, the strictly thoroughbred mares, from the rigid and fixed caste of their blood, refuse to yield to the Bellfounder element in Hamble- tonian, and do not cross well with any of his sons, except when au intermediate cross has intervened that serves as an alchemy to dissolve and assimilate that otherwise obstinate element. Whenever Volunteer has attained any mastery in the cross with a thoroughbred mare, h& owes it to the intermediate agency of his Patriot dam. In this matter of one sex transmitting certain qualities which are not transmitted alike by the opposite sex, were it not a fact within the observation of every breeder of experience, it would afi"ord no SELECTIONS IN BREEDING. 31 greater anomaly than the case of Edward Lambert, whose body was covered with the horny excrescences. He transmitted this pecu- Harity to his sons but not to his daughters, and it was likewise trans- mitted, by his only sou of the six who survived, to his sons, but not by his daughters nor to any of the female descendants. It was transmitted through the male line for six generations and then disappeared. As closely connected with this subject, it is highly proper also to advert to the fact that it very frequently occurs that one gait is materially modified by crossing with another family possessing a good but different style of action. It is reasonable to suppose that the colt would possess a gait somewhat different from each of his parents, but sometimes it results that the way of going is highly defective. I will not stop here to treat of the true trotting gait, but it will be sufficient for my purpose to say that if, in the case of two different gaits, each in no special way objectionable, the joint produce should show abundance of trotting action, but at the same time of suqh faulty kind as to require art and the appliances of skillful treatment to remedy that defect, there may be a direct loss instead of a positive gain. The resort to weights to balance up a trotter and cause him to go level and steady may accomplish the object, but the necessity for such a resort is a loss. A trotter should go level and steady before and behind, and he should not be a sprawler, although such defect can in great part be overcome by skillful treatment; but there is great loss of motion and power in all such cases. Economy is the great law of life in all its departments — economy of forces, of resources, and also in results. A colt must not trot too high nor too low in front, and he must not do all his trotting with his forelegs. Here comes the great difficulty to be apprehended at all times in crossing the Morgan family, with their high-knee action, or the Pilots and Mambrinos, with their wide-open, almost sprawling action, on Hamljletonians and others that excel in their even, true stride, jDassing over great lengths "with little show of trotting action. The results of such crossing are apparent already in some very notable quarters, and will in time detract greatly from some of the most popular families now before the public. In close connection with this part of the subject, it must be kept in mind, at all times, that it often occurs in breeding various kinds of domestic animals that certain qualities develop or disappear, strength- en or weaken when they encounter certain crosses. Tliis often 32 THE BREEDING PROBLEM. occurs irrespective of the value or nature of the quality. It seems that particular soils are favorable to its develoj^ment and growth, and this often when there is no similarity of tendency in the soil in wliich the peculiarity starts or grows. Thus the hea^■y shoulders and hind- quarters of Hambletonian come from the Bellfounder cross; it is a peculiarity entirely foreign to the Abdallah family, yet its devt-lop- ment in the case of Haiubletonian and some of his sons far surpasses the same development in Brown's Bellfounder or any of his stock. The representatives of the Bellfounder family, wherever found, so far as any of that stock exist, show their resemblance in part to that feature of their original, l)ut in no case to the extent found in Ham- bletonian and some of his sons. The germ came from the Bellfounder, but it greatly jDrogressed in the soil of Abdallah and Messenger, where none of it previously existed. It can hardly be supposed any one will be found who will claim that this is an anatomical structure as exhibited in its largest proportions, that is favorable to speed, although one of great strength. Likewise, often a mare will be found to produce colts with a certain quality not visible in herself — as speed, or a peculiarity of gait — a good or bad quality, and this quality, thus originating from an unknown cause, Avill develop and increase in the offspring of such colts. Thus sometimes very valual^le traits originate, and also seiious defects, which are very difficult to eradicate. One of the distinguished sons of Hambletonian exliibits a narrowness of foot, particularly at the heel, which to the most casvial observer must be regarded as objectionable. The same peculiarity is exhibited in all of his offspring that have come under my observation. On inquiry, I am informed that his dam, one of the most distinguished trotters this country ever produced, went lame from the same cause. Hambletonian and his family general!}'" have very superior feet. The pacing gait in the Cadmus family began with Iron's Cadmus, and seems to have been derived from his dam. Cadmus, the sire, had no more pacing blood in him than American Eclipse, his sire; yet the pacing tendency of all the descendants of Iron's Cadmus shows that in him it started and became j^art of the blood, bone, or brain, or wheresoever the quality rests — of which more hereafter. . Thus, also, the quitting characteristics of some of the Clays, from Avhich the rep- utation of a famih^, otherwise one of the best, has suffered so much, evidently came from siich a source. It has l>een generally regarded as coming from the low breeding of the Surrey mare, the dam of Henry Clay, and that it consists of a lack of breeding — a want of SELECTIONS IN BEEEDING. 33 bottom; but this can not be the case. Two crosses of thorough blood often make a dam. capable of throAving a trotter such as Lady Thorn or Dexter, no matter how insignificant the stock was anterior to that point; and while the performances and the breeding of George M. Patchen guarantee his blood to be beyond any lack of bottom, the quitting tendency in some of the Clays proves it to be a deep-seated trait of character, rooted in the mental or nervous organization, and not in any lack of stamina. It is not because they can't, but because they ■won't. All such traits are deep-seated and very difficult to eradicate. We have lately heard much of the Clay cross in the Hambletonian family, that has gone far to redeem the Clays from the odium which for awhile attached to them; but upon this, as on many other branches of the subject, great ignorance is displayed by many of those who "write for the edification of the public. A clear analysis of the so- called Clay cross in each instance will perhaps show that the success of the union has been in no certain deg-ree attributable to a single element of the Clay blood, properly so called. Of this subject I shall treat very fully when I come to the proper place to deal with the branches of those families respectively, where the peculiarities of these two elements have been most clearly manifested. In the breeding of horses — and perhaps of other animals — it must always be borne in mind that the union of diverse elements involves at all stages a contest for supremacy of blood forces. The peculiar quahties of one blood may appear to prevail, while another may be apparently overcome; yet at subsequent stages, or in different unions, either owing to reinforcement or modification of these forces from other causes, the relative positions of the several elements become reversed — that which was predominant assumes a jiosition secondary to that which had before been insignificant. A qu.ality that was apparently absent, but in reality dormant and concealed, often shines out with great lustre in connection with elements that seem to have no apparent fitness or adaptation to calling out such peculiar manifes- tations. It is a fact also established in breeding that certain qualities have a tendency to prevail, if coming from a male, over other quahties, com- ing from a female, but which do not thus assert this tendency when the respective sexes are reversed. Thus the Diomed blood, concern- ing which most erroneous estimates have prevailed, is an element in the composition of a trotting sire whose influence at all times tends toward an abatement or deterioration of the trotting quality, but 3-1 THE BREEDINCr PROBLEM. which can be and has proved in the dams of trotters a factor of apjire- ciated value. It is also true beyond doubt that the Bellfounder blood, when united with that of Messenger, found its true place at all times when presented in the composition of the dam, as in the case of Ham- bletonian. King Phillip, and all the distinguished produce of mares by Sayer's Harry Clay, and in the case of Harry Clay himself. It may not be easy to explain why this peculiarity exists, but the fact is established by many examples. In the subsequent chapters of this volume attention wall be called to the fact, that the class of blood coming from the union of that of Mes- senger and Duroc, and termed Duroc- Messenger, has this quality in an eminent degree, that it displays great success when presented in a trotting combination on the side of the dam, but as such fails of its- chief excellence when presented on the side of the sire, where the dam is strong either in Messenger or Bellfounder blood. This may be regarded by some as savoring of mysticism, but to all such I present the case of Edward Lambert and his sons for six generations, and when the facts in that case are refuted or their philosophy explained, we shall be prepared to understand why it is that sires to succeed with mares of a certain composition should themselves possess certain blood traits in preference to others. Another important truth, known to many, but apparently understood by few, is that in breeding trotters from thoroughbred dams, or mares that are strong in the blood of the thoroughbred, the offspring are apt to display the known precocity of the thoroughbred in regard to their earliness of maturity, in the matter of trotting excellence, but fail to retain it, or at least fail to improve with age. One family in particular, where a Duroc-Messenger sire attained a most brilliant reputation as the sire of young trotters, and was particularly distinguished by the attractive and showy gaits of his produce from thoroughbred mares,, but whose fame would now be regarded as resting on slender sup- ports indeed if he had nothing to show but his list of 2:30 trotters descended from mares thus bred. The explanation of all tliis is found in the fact that the blood of Diomed, whose tendency at all times is fCgainst the trotting quality^ when it was reinforced by the same or by kindred strains coming from thoroughbred mares, worked against the real trotting quality in the aftiimal produced, and in spite of the early appearances which gave so much of promise, the horse at maturity was not a trotter. The pro- duce of Mambrino Patchen and Woodford Mambrino from thoroujrh- SELECTION'S IN BREEDING. 35 bred mares can not be embraced in the list of trotters, unless in rare instances. The tendency was to work back toward the original blood, and that was the blood of a race-horse and not a trotter. In this connection the following extracts are both suggestive and full of sound pliilosophy: It is one of the principles of heredity, that wlien there is great uniformity in a species, divergences from the usual type in the offspring are slight and rare ; but when this uniformity, from no matter what cause, has been broken up, divergences in the offspring are frequent and great, although there is- always present a tendency, more or less powerful, to revert to the original type. This tendency is most frequently manifested when breeds or races, widely differing in their present forms, are crossed upon each other. In such cases, or violent crosses, as they are called, it frequently happens that the progeny resembles neither parent, but shows strong marks of the type from which both of its ancestors originally sprung. Darwin, in his work, already referred to, gives numerous illustrations of this tendency to reversion, in his experiments with pigeons of various breeds and colors, one of which we quote, as follows : "I paired a mongrel female barbfautail with a mongrel male barb-spot; neither of which mongrels had the least blue about them. Let it be remem- bered that blue barbs are excessively rare; that spots, as has been already stated, were perfectly characterized in the year 1676, and breed perfectly true ; this likewise is the case with white fantails, so much so that I have never heard of white fantails throwing any other color. Nevertheless the offspring from the above two mongrels were of exactly the same blue tint as that of the wild rock-pigeon, from the Shetland Islands, over the whole back and wings ; the double black wing-bars were equally conspicuous ; the tail was exactly alike in all its characters, and the croup was pure white; the head, however, was tinted with a shade of red, evidently derived from the spot, and was of a paler blue than in the rock-pigeon, as was the stomach. So that two black barbs, a red spot, and a white fantail, as the four purely-bred grandparents, produced a bird of the same general blue color, together with every character- istic mark, as in the wild Columba liviay This tendency to reversion in different breeds of domestic animals when crossed, accounts for many of the disappointments which breeders experience in their efforts to improve their stock, and serves greatly to complicate the breeding problem. This matter may be of some importance to those amateur breeders who are constantly demanding that Ave should have more frequent recurrence to the blood of the thoroughbred to give stamina and hio:h quality to our roadsters, and is thrown in here as germane to the subject particularly under consideration, although the topic last referred to is specially treated in a subsequent chapter. Another important truth is very frequently overlooked — not being 36 THE BREEDING PROBLEM. really understood by many and only to be learned by experience and close observation — namely, that the transmission of certain qualities, good or bad, for which a given family is noted, does not always proceed in direct proportion to the quantum or arithmetical proportion of the blood of such family represented in the animal em])loyed. Thus, the trotting quality of the Messenger and Bellfounder families is not in many cases transmitted by sires with six separate lines of the blood of either of these sires with a force equal to that displayed by Rhode Island, a remote descendant of a daughter of Messenger, and embracing but this single and remote line of his blood and no known trottmg quality aside from that thus derived. In like manner, the tendency of the Duroc blood toward infirmity in the matter of spavins, curbs and ringbones is often transmitted in a sino-le line or smaller number of the same with OTeat force and viru- lence, while other families and animals showing a larger quantum of that blood are apparently free from all taint or infirmity. This latter featui'e is contrary to the general rule, which is ordinarily safely followed, namely, that the good or bad qualities of a family vrill transmit in direct and arithmetical proportion (to a great extent) to the quantum of such blood possessed by the animal employed, and that such tendencies are reinforced and invigorated by successive reunions of separate lines of such blood after the same has been departed from for a period. By this method, the best and most distin- guished results have been attained in the breeding of trotters. CEOSS-BREEDING. It must be also kept in mind, that all trotting blood is not alike, and that the blood of different trotting families is not so far homoge- neous that they may be employed to reinforce each other. They are as likely to counteract as to aid in securing trotting excellence. Hence it is, that we sometimes find a horse so bred as to embrace the blood of every distinguished trotting family known among breeders, and his failure as a trotter or breeder is not less complete than is the list of trotting crosses embraced in his pedigree. A pedigree may embrace very little and yet be borne by a good horso, and it may embrace the blood of every eminent trotter or noted family in the land, yet but adorn an animal of no value whatever as a performer or breeder. Nothing is so common as a pedigree parading crosses of all the noted trotting families, which the owner exhibits with entire confi- CROSS-BREEDING. 87 dence that it embraces all the excellencies that have appeared in our past or present exj^erience in breeding trotters. The utter failure of the colt, either as a trotter, or a reproducer of trotting excellence, is at length reached, but only serves to impress liis breeder with the pro- found conviction that the whole business is a matter of chance — a lottery of the most absolute uncertainty. He is assured by some of the learned ones that trotters go in all forms — and he overlooks the important fact that they also go in all sorts of ways, as the legitimate and inevitable result of their multifarious forms — and that these ways of going, and these diverse forms are the legitimate and inevitable result of physical conformation, and nerve or mental traits that are not only dissimilar, but often operate in dissimilar ways in breeding — often operate against each other — are often inharmonious in their combinations, and, as a consequence, in their results. Hence, the end of his great hopes and wonderful expectations is a sad and unprofita- ble failure. We cross-breed too much, and do not sufficiently study the ques- tion of harmony in the physical and nerve traits that we combine in o\ir efforts to produce the trotter. That one conformation or one mental organism may be modified by combining with it another of dissimilar elements, is most certainly true; and this can often be done with the best of results — but it can only be done by a union of ele- ments that will, when united, or while uniting, tend or work in the direction of harmony toward a point that contains the conditions of successful operation. By this method, a defective jDhysical conforma- tion may be relieved, and in great part cured; and a disturbed, or deficient, or illy balanced temperament or nerve organism may be quieted or stimulated to the point or degree called for in the level- headed and strong-willed trotting champion. In some families, the anatomical or muscular conformation may be defective or deficient; the front cannon-bones may be too short or too long — the same may be the case with the forearm, or the thigh, or the length of sweep from hip to hock. There are families which possess deficiencies or excesses in each of these particulars; all of which can, to a great degree, and perhaps to the degree requisite for complete success, be corrected by judicious selections and crossing; but the first condition essential to such a process, is a knowledge of the exact state of the defect which it is necessary to correct. This involves the study and knowledge of diverse physical and mental proportions and confor- mation; a matter which is so exceedingly novel, almost incompre- . I 38 THE BREEDING PROBLEM. hensible and passing strange to some of our very learned ones, who have for a long time taught us horse lore, that the bare proposition to ascertain by actual measure and comparison the relative proportions of different animals is received as something that should stao-o-er and disturb the equilibrium of these staid and deeply philosophical minds. The real fact is, that there is nothing so dishonest as sheer ignorance, and nothing so willfully ignorant as downright dishonesty. I can, in this connection, appeal to the well-known fact that our great trotters or trotting sires do not, as a general rule, come from the long and brilliantly drawn out pedigrees. Take the stallions from some distinguished sire, and from dams whose pedigrees are six to eight generations deep — every link bringing out the name of some distinguished family or animal — and these are generally failures. But Hambletonian, from the mare by Patriot, has produced the first trot- ting sire of America; and from the mare by Bay Roman he produced the renowned sire of Goldsmith Maid, Almont and Thorn dale; from Princess he produced Happy Medium; froni Sally Feagles he pro- duced Peacemaker. Amazonia prodviced Abdallah; and the dams of Blackwood, Thomas Jeffea-son, Smuggler, Dexter, Startle, Mambrino Chief, Lady Thorn, Ericsson, Clark Chief, and the most of our great trotters and trotting stallions, were short-pedigree mares; Avhile, as before stated, the long-pedigreed stallions have not generally been very successful — almost proving that one good mare is better than half a dozen, and most clearly showing that one good mare is more reliable than a long pedigree, and of far more \^lue. And in this connection, let me ask the question, why is it that so many of our short-pedigreed and part-bred mares that have no trotting crosses whatever, have been so noted as the dams of great trotters from this and that particular sire? • Why is it that so many trotting stallions of strong and positive trot- ting qviality have succeeded so well as sires with fair road mares not noted for great trotting qualities, and generally coming from one or tAvo thoroughbred crosses — such, for example, as the dams of Lady Thorn, Lula, May Queen, Music, Lady Stout, Lucy, Pilot Jr., John Morgan, Jenny, "Woodford Mambrino, Brignoli, Jim Porter, Molsey, Great Eastern, Grafton, and many other superior trotters? To the inind of the intelligent breeder the answer is very obvious. These mares had the blood, the • stamina, the highly organized nervous tem- perament, to give the trotter high quality in all these respects; and at the same time they carried in themselves no positive, deeply -bred and CROSS-BREEDING. 39 immovable trottiiiii- tendencies or inclinations of their own to conflict with, combat, or stand in the way of those of the trotting stallions Avith which they are crossed. Hence, the stallion had his own way in this matter of gait and other ti'otting elements. Hence, Lady Thorn, "Woodford Mambrino and Brignoli were Mambrinos; Lucy was a Patchen; Lady Stout is gaited like all the produce of her sire; Erics- son and Clark Chief differ from all the other sons of Mambrino Chief, for the reason that Mrs. Caudle and her daughter, while good mares to cross with the Chief, yet had trotting blood and ways of their own that they refused to yield to him. Hence, these two families have their o^wai t^-pe. But it does not absolutely follow that long and rich pedigrees may not be found in the dams of our best trotters and trot- ting stallions, provided the breeder will carefully study the character- istics, both mental and physical, that enter into his chosen combination. Unless this is done — and in most instances it is not — the result will be failure. Violent or remote crosses must be avoided, for the very reason that thev will brina: toa'ether elements both of i^livsical conformation and nervous organism that will not harmonize, but will ojDerate against and neutralize each other. The question, how shall we cross-breed so as to prevent our stock from degenerating, and at the same time bring no disturbance of the liarmony of the physical and nervous organism of our trotting stock, is of great importance, and one which calls for the exercise of the greatest circumspection and intelligent discrimination. The following brief extract from a lecture by an eminent divine of our own country, affords a text that has some force and may be studied to advantage by the breeder of our trotting horse: The marriage of highly-gifted persons of different lines of descent, is a method of improving the upper, but only the upper, that is, the most intel- lectual and virtuous, portion of the human family. This being applied to the subject under review means plainly, that in making our selections for breeding purposes with a view to freshen- ing up or re-invigorating the blood of^our animals, we should at no time descend to a low or ill-bred cross. While all foreign and very remote or dissimilar crosses should be avoided, we should in making our selections, at all times look to the elevation of our strains of blood, and have a jealous eye against anything that could debase or lower our standards. We have done that in the past, in the infancy of our trotting breeds in some of the Canadian elements of blood that were 40 THE BREEDING PROBLEM. far too cold and uncongenial, but from their intermixture with our other lines of blood, although not up to the highest standard of excel- lence, they are now far preferable as a resort to any new impor- tations or other low-bred or distant removes from our American standard. In our Abdallahs, Hambletonians, Champions, Clays, or Bashaws, and Mambrinos, as at present crossed with the Pilots, St. Lawrences, ]\Iorgans, Pacers, and other stock as bred and inter- mingled for the past fifty years, we have an abundant range for selection Avithout ever introducing a single new or foreign or low-bred element into our trotting families. With sufficient care and discrimi- nation we can and should render our trotting stock more and more homogeneous and uniform in their style and standard of excellence each year, and at the same time hold them in range far enough removed as to avoid the ill effect of too close in-breeding. It must, however, be clearly stated in this connection, that the one great dan- ger from violent outcrossing in our breed of trotting horses, is in the discordant or conflicting elements of gait and temperament that may be thereby introduced. Outcrossing, if not Avith low or ill-bred stock, often seems to add greatly to the physical and nervous development of a family, in all that pertains to size, vigor and health, and in many cases the greatest and most valuable results have accrued from such unions. The present elements of Pilot blood in our trotting horse — a very valuable element indeed — have come to us as the result of a very violent cross, but one that fused well and became thoroughly assimi- lated, and as such forms a union with almost any blood vnth which it unites, in the same harmony which it displayed in the first union. Mr. Darwin, the eminent English naturalist, on the general subject of cross-breeding, uses the following language: The crossing of distinct forms, whether closely or distantly allied, gives increased size and constitutional vigor, and, except in the case of crossed spe- cies, increased fertility, to the offspring. The evidence rests on the universal testimony of breeders (for it should be observed that I am not here speaking of the evil results of close interbreeding), and is practically exemplified in the higher value of cross-bred animals for immediate consumption. The good results of crossing have also been demonstrated, in the case of some animals and of numerous plants, by actual weight and measurement. Although ani- mals of pure blood will obviously be deteriorated by crossing, so far as their characteristic qualities are concerned, there seems to be no exception to the rule, that advantages of tha kind just mentioned are thus gained, even when there has not been any previous close interbreeding. The rule applies to all animals, even to cattle and sheep, which can long resist breeding in-and-in IN-BREEDING. 41 betwreen the nearest blood relations. It applies to individuals of the same Sub- variety but of distinct families, to varieties or races, to sub-species, as well as to quite distinct species. In this latter case, however, whilst size, vigor, precocity and hardiness are, with rare exceptions, gained, fertility, in a greater or less degree, is lost ; but the gain can not be exclusively attributed to the principle of compensation; for there is no close parallelism between the increased size and vigor of the offspring and their sterility. Moreover it has been clearly proved that mon- grels which are perfectly fertile gain these same advantages as well as sterile hybrids. I>"-BREEDING. In close relation to the subject last under consideration is that of In-Breedino; — with reference to its advantao:es and the dang-ers that attend it or result from its pursuit. Much is written and said on this STibject, and every amateur is ready to propound his maxim as the embodiment of all the current philosophy relating to that branch of breeding science. Two general truths are known to exist touching this question; first, that in -breeding seems to secure and fix the good or desirable qualities in a given breed or class of animals, and second, that in-breeding too closely causes degeneracy, and results in deterio- ration and loss of quality; that this latter, if persisted in, is far-reach- ing and almost unlimited in the extent of the injury which it will achieve. To those who speak from actual knowledge of the subject derived from experience and a study of the department in which they are engaged, it is not an easy question in all cases to determine how in- breeding shall be conducted in order that the best and most permanent advantages may be gained in the way of infixing or so stamping the qualities desired as to make them permanent and hereditarily trans- missible in high degree, without, at the same time, in any way impair- ing the vigor and higher quality of the nervous organism or the physical stamina of the animal or family. The blood of animals seems like the air we breathe — the very use of it contaminates it, and it requires new elements to restore the purity and force which each successive draught absorbs from the source of supply. Consanguinity is the hotbed in which all the blood impurities of a race are brought to early maturity. Mr. Darwin has written a letter to the English Agricultural Gazette-, from which I extract the following: Sexual reproduction is so essentially the same in plants and animals, that I think we may fairly apply conclusions drawn from the one kingdom to the other. 42 THE BREEDING PROBLEM. From a long series of experiments on plants, given in my book On Vie Effects of Gross and Self- Fertilization, the conclusion seems clear that there is no mysterious evil in the mere fact of the nearest relations breeding together; but that evil follows (independently of inherited disease or weakness) from the circumstance of near relations generally possessing a closely similar con- stitution. However little we may be able to explain the cause, the facts detailed by me show that the male and female sexual elements must be dilTercntiated to a certain degree, in order to unite properly, and to give birth to a vigorous progeny. Such differentiation of the sexual elements follows from the parents and their ancestors having lived some generations imder different conditions of life. The closest interbreeding does not seem to Induce variability or a departure from the typical form, of the race or family, but it causes loss of size, of con- stitutional vigor in resisting unfavorable influences, and often of fertility. On the other hand, a cross between plants of the same sub-variety, which have been grown during some generations under different conditions, increases to an extraordinary degree the size and vigor of the offspring. Some kinds of plants bear self-fertilization much better than others ; never- theless it has been proved that these profit greatly by a cross with a fresh stock. So it appears to be with animals, for Short-horn cattle — perhaps all cattle — ■can withstand close interbreeding with very little injury ; but if they could be crossed with a distinct stock without any loss of their excellent qualities, it would be a most surprising fact if the oftspring did not also profit in a very high degree in constitutional vigor. If, therefore, any one chose to risk breeding from an animal which suflered from some inheritable disease or weakness, he would act wisely to look out, not merely for a perfectly sound animal of the other sex, but for one belonging to another strain, which had been bred during several generations at a distant place, under as different con- ditions as to soil, climate, etc., as possible, for in this case he might hope that the offspring, by having gained in constitutional vigor, would be enabled to throw oft' the taint in their blood. As it seems to be a law of nature, and particularly of animal existence, that every organism carries within itself the seeds of decay— the elements of decline — so the law of heredity looks con- stantly in the direction of concentrating infirmity and hastening dissolution. To counteract this, is part of the province of drawing fresh supplies in the way of outcrossing, and the process of breeding in this regard is a revival of the contest between the two forces of conservatism and progression. But this same conservatism in nature and in animal existence is a law of decline, and can only be success- fully combated by a resort to the other, or laAV of progressive re- enforcement. And the grand plane of successful breeding is reached when the breeder shall at the same time and by the same processes l)oth re-enforce the constitutional vigor and nervous energy of his IN-BREEDING. 43 stock and concentrate or intensify the peculiar excellences or qualities which give the chief value to his breed or families of animals sought to be produced. By such a process, improvements are real and substantial, and a gain of one quality is not a loss of another. ■ It is' irrational and unphilosophical to say that we can in-breed to the extent of a certain number of crosses and then must outcross a certain and fixed number by way of counteracting the injurious effect of the first attempt. It is as unwise to say twice in and once out, as once in and twice out. It is best to follow the true maxim, that each return to the same blood is deleterious and to be avoided, if the same good qualities can be secured by a union with a blood that is similar in the good qualities sought and free from the taint or imperfection that must exist in the source last di-awn from. The converse of the maxim is also as safe, and may be expressed thus, — that it is a positive loss to go away or depart from the good qualities sought or desired, and thus to weaken and impair their force, if such departure is not rendered necessary by the impurity of the source from whence your supply has been drawn, to such an extent as to create more loss in health and vigor by again drawing therefrom, than by the introduction of new supplies elsewhere found. Hence, it is always safe and desirable to draw new supplies from such source, if the same can be found, as will both re-enforce the bodilv or nervous Angor or health of the animal, and at the same time reinvigorate or add to the accumulated force of the given qualities sought to be per- petuated and intensified. Before proceeding to the practical application of these principles to the breeding of our trotting horses, I insert here a slip taken from the same lecture of an eminent divine before adverted to, as fol- lows: The intermarriage of highly gifted relatives tends to diminish rather tUan to increase the ability of the race. Neibuhr says that aristocracies, when obliged to recruit their numbers among themselves, fall into decay, and often into insanity, dementia and imbecility. Who does not know that this truth might be illustrated by vast ranges of historical knowledge, were there time here for the presentation of details ? The Lagidaj and Seleucidte for ten hundred years intermarried, and through nine htmdred years were in a process of mysterious decay. "Who cloes not know that it was the feeling of Many of our revolutionary fatliers that half the thrones of Europe were filled by persons more or less erratic on «,ccount of descending from relatives ? It was one of the propositions of Jef- 44 THE BREEDING PROBLEM. ferson, often talked about in private, that the thrones of Europe were filled with imbeciles, the results of consanguineous marriages. I'he rule of the Church of England to-day on this topic is more strict than has been that of some decayed royal houses. It is within the observation of every breeder that his stock deterio- rates in quality with great rapidity if he breeds from inferior animals- or those low in point of quality. Selections, to maintain standards of excellence, must at all times be from the best. But even with this precaution, respect must also be had to the degree of consanguinity that exists between the animals interbred. It is known that some classes of animals retrograde from in-breeding more rapidly than others — as, for example, the Dorking fowls, most likely from the fact that not a large number of them exist,, and they have been bred a long time, and hence they are of neces- sity more closely related than if they had only recently been origi- nated from diverse materials. The high or low quality of the stock bred from also affects the question, as in low-bred stock the impurities of blood form so large a. ratio of the whole that a very short period of interbreeding suffices to indelibly fix the marks of decay, while superiority of blood, or that which possesses in itself great vigor and healthfulness, enables a stock to endure much and close in-breeding before the evidences of decline are apparent. It is well understood that in-breeding to a close degree has been practiced among the breeders of Short-horns in this country and in England — the result of which has been to estabHsh a standard of great excellence as to certain valuable points, but at the expense of a sacrifice of the constitutional vigor of the race. It is well known that barrenness, both in males and females, has become so common as- to amount almost to a characteristic; they are no longer a family remarkable for longevity, or the size of the carcass, that once distin- guished members of the family not bred up to the most fashionable standards. Our thoroughbred horses are all bred from the original blood of the desert, but having a large number of animals to breed from, a large range of families not closely akin, and all of a high standard of blood, the skillful breeders of England and America have been able to improve the standards of excellence so far that the race-horse has grown from an animal fourteen and a half hands high to one sixteen and a half hands, and of great power and perfection. Probably no family of animals ever produced surj^assed in blood purity and inherent IN-BEEEDING. 45 constitutional viffor the horses which are the immediate descendants of Imported Messenger — yet there can be no doubt of the fact that in some instances, close in-breeding has reduced the size and impaired the nerve force and other high qualities for whith that blood was so eminent. It had in itself so much vitality, so much inherent purity and excellence, that it could infuse vigor and advancement into any cross with which it came in contact, and could also counteract the impurities of other bloods, and resist decay longer than almost any other strains ever known to the American breeder; nevertheless it is apparent that instances are within our sight which clearly demonstrate that even this magical blood has been too closely interbred in parts of this country. Hambletonian was one of the best bred horses we have ever seen; he was an in-bred horse — but not too closely in-bred, in view of the quality of the Messenger blood. His dam was an outcross, but his granddam was in-bred, and his sire was in-bred, being undoubtedly, to my mind, a grandson of Messenger, with three or more crosses of the blood of that horse. But the elfect of an outcross of great vigor in his dam, a daughter of Imported Bellfounder, gave him a strong cast of that blood, and made of him a horse of great quality, substance and power, and having at the same time so much in-breeding in the blood of Messenger, it gave him great force as a sire. But while he was not too closely in-bred himself, it is clear that his produce from any mare by Abdallah or any other equally strong in the blood of Messenger, would be too closely in-bred, and the diminished size and other qual- ities would show the want of an intermediate outcross. His Bellfounder cross gave him a thigh 24 inches in length, and a length from hip to hock of 41 inches, but th3 uniformity with which he bred back to the smaller standard of 23 and 39, showed the mastery of the strong cur- rents of Messenger blood. His best produce were those not positively strong or near in either Messenger or Bellfounder blood, although none equaled those of that blood when it was also crossed with other bloods, so far as to main- tain its vigor and counteract the inevitable tendency toward decline. The blood of Trustee, Henry, Duroc, and many unknown crosses combined with that of Messenger, formed the fields in which he excelled in the highest degree. It is often said he excelled in Messen- ger blood, and certainly his best efforts were not outside of that blood, but it was so far in combination with other even unknown bloods, that it was beyond the boundary of close interbreeding. That the great 46 THE BREEDINC^ PROBLEM. popularity of his family, and particularly of the blood of Abdallah, has caused much objectionable interbreeding of recent years, is unquestionable. I think no half brothers or sisters should in any case be interbred — no dauohter of Hambletonian with a son of that horse — while one remove further may be regarded as far enough and be looked to for valuable results. Messenger Duroc and Elniokerbocker were from granddaughters of Abdallah, and Florida was from a daughter of Volunteer, all large and valuable stallions, wliile Kling Philip, by Jay Gould, from a daughter of Hambletonion, showed speed and a concentration of the trotting quality as might be expected up to a certain degree, but in being far smaller than either of his parents, he bore testimony to the correctness of the principles here maintained. I bought in New York a most promising colt by Florida, first dam by Volunteer, second dam by Daniel Webster, son of Long Island Blackhawk, third dam by Abdallah. He was a very beautiful colt and exhibited great excellence in temper and trotting quality, but that he was too closely in-bred both to Volunteer and Abdallah was apparent. His sire and dam were both of great substance and strong in bone and joint. His bone was far too light and his joints were not satisfac- tory. He died from typhoid fever; and his full sister, lacking in the vigor and perfection of either her sire or dam, is also dead, before either reached the age of three years. Although fine in every point of good breeding, they each manifested a delicacy of constitution not exhibited by either sire or dam. A stallion too closely in-bred may be a valuable breeder, and may show great vital energy and be successful in his outcrosses, but it will affect his own size, and perhaps many other qualities, when the influ- ences of such in-breeding are not so perceptible. Lakeland Abdallah and Harold are both good breeding stallions and their outcrosses are often large, although their own lack of size bears evidence to the truth that they were too closely in-bred. An incident recently came before me, which forcibly illustrates what I have frequently seen, and which is valuable as conveying its own lesson. A paper was shown me containing the alleged pedigree and produce of a mare called Miss Elliott, bred in the State of Iowa. She was granddaughter of the mare known as the Elliott mare, dam of Tramp, that wa,s alleged to be by Abdallah, but the fact has been disputed. The pedigree was exhibited as showing many crosses of Messenger blood, which would be the case if the Elliott mare was by IN-BREEDING". 47 Abdallah, but the lesson in regard to in-breeding was the same, as the mare was closely in-bred to the Elliott mare, whatever she was. This Elliott mare from Greene's Bashaw as the sire, produced a stal- lion named Peacock. From Gage's Logan she produced the stallion Tramp, and a filly, full sister. This sister of Tramp was bred to the son of Bashaw and produced Miss Elliott. Hence she was by the half brother of her own dam, and the Elliott mare was granddam on both sides. Miss Elliott, this in-bred mare, was then bred for two seasons to Tramp, the full brother of her own dam, and the record for each year's foal was, "f^eae?." A proper record and fit commentary upon the intelligence displayed in such breeding. Several close crosses of Hambletonian blood will be fashionable in a pedigree for the present and near future — but I want not more than two until I have a proper outcross, of course not a violent or abso- lutely foreign outcross, but one that possesses some new elements to relieve the drain upon the pure currents of the old blood. There is no difficulty in this matter in our country as our families now stand. We have so many kindred strains whose affinity is far enough away to afford relief for each other that we have no need of close inter- breeding nc«" of any resort to foreign or violent outcrosses. Our breed- ing may remain entirely homogeneous, and wholly maintain its vigor, even increased and improved, as we have done in the thoroughbred. But l^is will only be attained by an adherence to sound principles and a due observance of the laws of outcrossing and interbreeding. I am aware that of recent years many have advocated close in-breed- ing, especially in the blood of Abdallah, and have pointed to Gold- smith Maid, Messenger Duroc, and some others, as illustrations, but the breeders have not stopped with the degree of in-breeding exhibited in these animals. These were not close in the sense in which I here speak of it. Hambletonian has received many Abdallah mares, and Messenger Duroc and other sons of Hambletonian have received daughters of Hambletonian, but no really great horse has descended from any such incestuous breeding. Good results, both in performers and reproducers have attended the crossing of the same lines of blood when something intermediate in each case has intervened, but no really incestuous crosses have re- sulted in the production of great or valuable animals. The blood of Alexander's Abdallah has been thus crossed more perhaps than any other, but in no case did it result in the equal of Thorn dale or Almont or Goldsmith Maid. 48 THE BREEDING PROBLEM. The practice of close in-breeding that has prevailed among Short- horn breeders will not successfully apply to horses. Our blood horses have too many elements from the same Arab stock, and the tendency is strongly toward their standard. This is clearly shown in our attempts to cross our Messenger trot- ting blood on our Diomed and other thoroughbred strains. The}'' lose the trotting gait instead of concentrating and strengthening trotting inclination. Hence, exjDcrience shows that we must constantly re-enforce the trotting elements, in-breeding in these families making it necessary. So will close in-breeding in the Messenger famih^, by reason of the large element of Arab blood in that strain, as we shall see in the course of the chapter devoted to that family. In the course of Chapter V, attention will he called to the fact that outcrosses have alreadv advanced the success of the Messeno-er blood, and still further advancement may be within reach, as still further need of outcrossing niay be found to exist. Our practice in regard to in-breeding must be controlled by the peculiarities — the demands, deficiencies and excesses in quality of the stock in Avhich we are dealing. In our American roadster Messenger blood forms so large an element that we must study its composition and traits, and this will reveal to us the fact that they are "of a two- fold nature — both contradictory. The one derived from long in-breed- ing in the blood of the desert, inclining the horse to gallojD rather than to trot, and that this is really a more powerful inclination than that which would lead him to trot, and that in-breeding in that blood directly, without the introduction of other elements, has the effect to diminish the trotting impulses. While in-breeding in the same blood after the interposition of other elements which operate to disturb this tendency to go back to the Arab or thoroughbred instinct, tends to strengthen and bring out in new force and vigor the trotting qualities of the Messenger blood. In-breeding in the Hambletonian family has the effect to strengthen the Bellfounder element, which at first was struggling against odds, as will be seen in the chapter on Hambletonian. If I am asked to indicate the kind of outcrosses for the Hanible- tonian mares — and by these I mean the daughters or granddaughters — I would say that I should seek such a cross as would tend to coun- teract the effect of the Messenger blood as displayed in that tendency in the Hambletonians toward the short measure from hip to hock — and at the same time avoid a cross that sets the hock at a point high above » DEVELOPMENT IN BREEDING STOCK. 49 the ground. This would be strengthening the Bellfounder -without a resort to the sanie blood. The Bellfounder cross was the true one in its day in this regard, as Bellfounder had a low hock, and a long measure from hip to hock. My own stallion. Argonaut, not only possesses the physical conformation called for, but he also embraces the blood ele- ments in the proper combination. He is strong in Messenger blood, coming through fresh channels, and well and harmoniously interbred Avith crosses of Duroc, Pilot, St. Lawrence and Sir Archy — a bold, open and natural trotter, as was Bellfounder, with a powerful muscu- lar organization, great strength of bone, and in substance after the model of Hambletonian himself. I mention him in particular, not for the purpose of calling him into notice, but for the puqiose of illus- trating exactly and forcibly the qualities to be sought in a proper outcross for the closely bred Messeno-ers of the Hambletonian family. Great in fame as that family have already grown, their renown will yet be advanced by the introduction of such elements as those above indicated, and the future eminence of the American trotter will be a conclusive testimonial to the correctness of these opinions. INFLUENCE OF DEVELOPMENT IN BREEDING STOCK. Tliis is another branch of the subject on which the writers, and more particularly those who have never owned a breeding animal or had any experience whatever in the breeding of stock, have much to say. The contributions on this point have mainly been confined to the horse department — as there seems to be a large number capable of writing on that animal, who can say little of any other dej^artment of breeding science. But after all that has been said or written on the subject, the horse himself in the various animals that have been bred, and the results of breedina: in the breedina; establishments of this country, furnish more real instruction than all the amateur wi-iters in the land. The horse as at present bred, as I have shown, is a coin- pound animal, the result of acquired and inherited qualities. It is also clear that the qualities he acquires he also transmits, provided he retains the same, and they thus enter into and become a fixed part of his animal character. These acquired traits, as they come from the exercise of certain functions, so they depend for their maintenance upon the continuance of such exercise, and they decline in force by disuse and idleness. 4 50 THE BREEDING PROBLEM. Hence, when an animal has acquired, from long and constant use, the nerve impulses and temperament of a roadster, full of intelligent appreciation of the duties and displays of power incident to such employment, it is but reasonable that such qualities would be trans- mitted to the offspring of such animal, produced when such habits of muscle and nerve were in full force and exercise, and that the force and certainty with which the same would be transmitted would in large part depend on the vital presence and force of such impulses. Experience and observation both combine to teach the truth of these principles. As we shall see further along, the great roadsters, and the great trotters also, have come from parents that had been similarly employed, and had a development that gave them fixed habits of nerve and body — a temperament adapted to and coming from the employment to which they had been devoted. It is important to note the fact that, while we recognize the blood of Messenger as the great trotting blood of our country, this trotting quality has come to us mainly, if not altogether, from the sons and daughters of Messenger that were either part bred or kept and bred from in localities where the horse was used as a roadster; and that, of his thoroughbred sons and daughters used for racing purposes, for which they were also distinguished, a much smaller percentage of trotting qualities has been disseminated. This will be referred to more fully in another place. Carrying out the supposed teachings of experience in this same mat- ter, it is also claimed that to produce great trotters with certainty and success, the parents must both be trained and developed in the way that our great trotters are trained, and that as a sequence of this doctrine such animals alone can be relied upon for the highest degree of success as breeding animals. Whether it is true that this high, degree of development in sire and dam is beneficial or can be relied on with increased confidence, is a matter of uncertainty, and also one of some difficulty to determine with any degree of satisfaction. Whether the process of training and fitting which we call the grand preparation for the great struggles of the race-course, do tend to give the nervous and physical organism the same degree of fixed character and constitute such traits into the permanent elements of the animal nature and being as the regular and constant use as a roadster and fast trotter in daily road work, we can hardly decide. Theory and practice might not agree — the doctrine started with, may not corre- spond to the results of experience. There may be many reasons why DEVELOPMENT IN BREEDING STOCK. 51 a fair test can not be expected. It takes so many years to develop the trotters and bring them to the highest degree of excellence that before they are ready to be transfen-ed from the department of per- formance to that of reproduction, their age unfits them for the greatest excellence in the latter. Thus far but a small number of great trot- ters have produced stallions that approach the front rank. Princess enjoyed a short career on the trotting turf after several years use as a roadster, in both of which departments she was distinguished, and then produced the stallion Happy Medium, who undoubtedly displays much of the trotting quality for which she was noted. Sally Miller, the dam of Long Island Blackhawk, was a trotter and road mare of distinction in her day, her claims to that rank being founded both in her performances at one and two-mile heats, and in her being either a granddaughter or a great-granddaughter of Mes- senger. Flora Temple has also left a son that has some claims to trotting excellence, but is yet not known to rank as a distinguished stallion. Lady Thorn has left a son yet too young to settle the question whether her high degree of perfection as a trotter was in her favor as the dam of a great stallion, and the same observation will apply to the son of Lucy, her distinguished companion and old-time competitor. It is certainly true that the renown of Lady Thorn as a trotter, and her brother Mambrino Patchen as the sire of trotters, in large part origi- nated in the fact that their dam was a highly bred and fully developed road mare, in constant service and of great reputed excellence. Amazonia, the dam of Abdallah, was the most noted road mare of her day; bred from the most noted road stock, but without any of the so-called development in any way, except hard and constant use on the road, where she had no peer. In her blood constituents and in her acquired and steadily maintained excellence, she was the worthy maternity of the greatest trotting family of our country, but not less distinguished in each of the above respects was the Charles Kent mare, the dam of Hambletonion. She was deeply in -bred in the best trotting blood — herself a daughter of one of the best natm-al trotters our country then had, and for many years was as much famed on the road as the distinguished dam of Ab- dallah. From such parentage it is no strange phenomenon in breeding that there came the founder or progenitor of a trotting race or family the greatest the world has yet seen. The dam of Alexander's Abdallah, the most successful of the sons 62 THE BREEDING PROBLEM. of Ham1)letonian for his short existence, was a developed road mare, but not entitled to be classed as anything beyond. So was the granddani of Volunteer, the dam of George Wilkes, the dam of Ericsson and granddam of Clark Chief, the dam of Trustee who trotted the twenty-mile race, and the dam and granddam of Knicker- bocker. The dam of Gov. Sprague, in addition to the qualities of a fast road mare fully developed, had the additional element of being a daughter of Hambletonian. The dam of Mambrino Chief by her good quali- ties as a roadster first proved herself to be worthy to produce so great a stallion, and in later years b}^ the qualities of her descend- ants also fully established her claim to the double distinction of possessing as good blood as was on the calendar. From her Abdal- lah would have produced the peer of Hambletonian, and, perhaps, a more generally successful stallion. TJie dams of Aberdeen, Cuyler, Middletown, Mambrino Star, Ar- gonaut, and many other distinguished stallions, came from superior road mares — the first on the above list, from a trotter of consid- erable distinction. It is rare indeed that a truly great road mare of good breeding has failed, when bred to a good sire, to produce something worthy of her own excellence, and still more rare, that a really great stallion can be shown whose dam was an unused and idle mare whose blood cjualities had never been called into exercise and proved by actual use and the capacity for hard work. Many mares in the breeding farms of this country have no other claim to superiority than a pedigree showing the blood of distinguished families. That many such fail may be owing to the fact that they never wore a collar or performed a day's work in their lives. It might be that many of these long-pedigree mares would acquire the harmony of nerve organism and blood traits which they seem to lack, if they were put into actual service on the road for a long and uninterrupted period. Nothing else, perhaps, would call out the dormant qualities of nerve and muscle which they carry hidden and unseen. It seems to be a law of animal existence, not confined to the human race, that without labor there is no great excellence, and that it is the trials and contests of life that call out and develop the caj^abilities of a race. CHAPTEE 11. PHILOSOPHY OF TROTTING. MENTAL IMPULSES PHYSICAL CONEORMATION SCOPE AND VALUE OF MEASUREMENT. At the threshold of the subject of breeding the trotting horse, we are met with the question, In what does the distinctive trotting qual- ity consist? What is it that gives him type, character and value as a trotter as compared with a horse that goes at any other gait? Is it habit? or instinct? the result of acquired or inherited nerve or mental quality? or is it the necessary and inevitable working of a certain phys- ical conformation that carries with it adaptation? Is it either of these separately, or is it the joint produce and result of all combined? Upon this subject I may say here, that much has been advanced by those who have undertaken to write upon the trotting horse, and many of my recent critics have not confined themselves to giving us their own ideas and opinions, but have manifested some enterprise in attempting to give mine before I had u.ttered them. I commend to all such a habit that I have fovind useful — that of treating of only one branch of a sul^ject at a time; for if I fail in that, I should hardly hope to succeed by combining several that were equally difficult. Besides, it is not always safb to guess at one's opinions on one subject from what he utters on an entirely different one. In general terms I may say, that this trotting quality is partly de- pendent on both mental or nerve organization, and physical conforma- tion. The same may be said of the element called speed. Unless the horse has form and physical adaptation to the trotting action, and also to speed, he can not trot or go fast. Unless he has a mental or ner- vous habit inclining him to trot, he will not choose and tenaciously adhere to that gait; and unless he has a quick temperament and a highly-organized nervous composition, he will not go fast at any gait. (53) 54 PHILOSOPHY OF TROTTING. All of these qualities are, to some extent, acquirable, and when acquired by growth, education, practice or blood, they are transmissi- ble and inheritable. It may be proper here to say, in passing, in order that I shall not be held unscientific, that these words " mental " and " nerve system " are often used Avithout intending to be held to the strict and correct truth of science. The organs that compose the brain and embrace the seat of mental and nervous action, may be said to be threefold, viz., the cerebrum, the cerebellum, and the cerebro-spinal mass. All these parts, acted upon by the mind, carry out action by means of two sys- tems of nerves, the automatic or reflex system, and the sensori-motor system. The cerebrum is the seat of thought, and no exercise of the will can be carried on without it. The cerebellum is the seat of com- bined motion, and is necessary to give unity to the motions of the muscles. The cerebro-spinal mass is the seat or centre of the auto- matic or reflex system of nerves. Along the spinal cord are ganglia, or centres, from which the nerves proceed. These ganglia are. diminu- tive brains — the same in shape and functions — and are inferior centres referred to the brain. The active power of the nervous system resides in these ganglia, and not in the fibres of the nerves. The sensori-motor system serves as a medium between the cause (aff'ection of the automatic system) and the effect (motion) which follows. These statements regarding the seat and organs of mental or nerve action thus concisely before us, we may proceed to the recognized fact, clearly discernible, that this trotting quality in the horse arises first of all from a state of mind, — habit of mind, — temperament, — temper of mind, — inclination or instinct (for such are the various terms that have been used), that induces or leads him to adopt that way of going — be it fast or slow it matters not. And right here I am forced to dispose of the question, "Which of these terms, or which phraseology correctly and philosophically expresses the true idea? More has been written and said in reference to the term " instinct," in this connec- tion, than almost any other department of horse literature. It has been brought forward on the one hand with a sort of proprietary assumption that has called forth and challenged the condemnation of those who had not the philosophy to dispute its soundness, or to fur- nish a term more accurate in its application. Discarding all previous definitions of the term, I may say that instinct is natural mental inclination, — inward impulse, — unconscious, TEOTTING INSTINCT. 56 involuntary or unreasoning prompting' to action, — a disposition to any mode of action without any apprehension of the end or object, — a natural and unthinldng impulse of an animal to do any act guided solely by inclination, and ungoverned by reason. What is inclination? It is a leaning of the mind or Avill, — a pro- pension or propensity, — a disposition more favorable to one thing than another, — disposition of mind. What is temperament? It is defined to be disposition of mind, — the constitution of the mind, particularly with regard to the passions and affections; as, a calm temper, a hasty, fretful temper, — degree of calmness of mind, or moderation. It will be seen further along, that this matter of temperament is one deserving of consideration in the mental character of the trottinjr horse ; but it is apparent that it has no proper application to the ques- tion under consideration — that of the natui-al inclination of the animal to the trotting gait. It is clear, from a careful analysis of the several terms and phrases used, that the terms inclination and instinct more accurately express the real idea embraced than any others. The term " trotting instinct " has been generally accepted; and, but for the proprietary assumjDtion that has been so loudly sounded in regard to it, would have become universally satisfactory as both convenient and philosophical. This mental trait that we call trotting instinct, is an unseen quality, not discernible by any of our senses, and it can not be located except in the light of science. Like all other mental states or conditions, it is only discoverable in its outward manifestations — in its leading, inducing or inclining the animal to adopt and adhere to the trotting action or gait, in preference to any other. This is the scope and province of trotting instinct; and the correctness of the principle does not, in any respect, refer to the rate of sj^eed which the animal can display at that gait. It simply embraces the inclination — the tenacity or force of that impulse. The other qualifications of the trotter depend upon other traits and qualities. This much being settled, it will be oIdvIous that this trotting instinct must, like all other mental qualities, have had an origin somewhere. It started before it grew; it was acquired before it was transmitted or inherited. It may be thus clearly stated that this habit or inclination of mind comes, first of all, and in great part, from a required or con- venient form of action that suggests the inclination, and induces its gratification and growth, until simjjle inclination becomes confirmed 56 niiLOSoPHr of trotting. habit, both of mind and body; and this habit of mind and liody leads to growth of each by exercise; and the growth of habit in mind and body leads also to the growth and further development of the form that is most adapted to the Avay of going thus chosen and practiced. The above principle should be kept clearly in mind, as we shall have occasion to recur to it frequently, and from it the connection between form and instinct in the trotter becomes apparent. In this manner qualities both of mind and form have originated and been developed. A restless and nervous breed of cattle are difficult to fatten. The best way to fatten such a breed is to confine and quiet them. The best way to quiet them is to make them fat; and as you proceed in breeding, quieting and fattening, from age to age and generation to generation, you reduce the lean native Texan to the gentle and beefy Short-horn — the fattest of all cattle, and the most quiet and docile of all animals. His quiet temper leads him to fatten readily, and his tendency to become gross and beefy increases the serenity of his disposition. Thus it is that two distinct elements reciprocally lead to the growth and development of each other. The horse, like all other domestic animals, has acquired many instincts and qualities that originated in the wants and conveniences of man, his owner, and whose purposes he has for so many ages most faithfully subserved. The race-horse, the pacer, the trotter and the draft horse have each acqviired his distinctive qualities and characters res})ectively from the local and predominating demands of his master. His mental traits may be thus said to have been borrowed in each case from man. The race-horse originated in the taste or demand of the rider for speed under the saddle; and the pacer, likewise, from the preference of the rider for that as a saddle gait. The trotting horse originated in a locality where trotting in harness was the favorite way of using the horse. Under our civilization it is and will forever remain the chief and popular method of appropri- ating the services and companionship of this noble animal by his owner. The intelligence of the latter leads him to select the class and breed of the animal best adapted to his use; and these two elements, adaptation and use, hand in hand, have led us to our present advanced state with the great American trotter. Habits of mind and body have been acquired, and are acquirable by use. . It is often said that experience is the best of schools; it undoubtedly is in all that pertains to the mental traits of the horse. Long usage and constant requisition upon the animal for the highest exercise of the qualities of OKIGIN OF TROTTIISTG INSTINCT. 57 a road horse, has been the nursery in which was reared the embrvo trotter, that now so greatly distinguishes our American turf. And it is instructive and highly useful in this connection to observe the influence of this school of experience on the part of the maternal ancestry of our trotting families. It is often said that we derive our greatest and best qualities fi-om our mothers. It certainly has been the case with the progress and development of our great trotting families. Amazonia was long and severely disciplined as a road mare. She thus acquired qualities which she imparted to Abdallah that are trans- mitted with a force not exhibited by any other son of Mambrino. It was the same school in which the dam of Hambletonian developed those qualities which mark so large a branch of our trotting family. The same may be said of the dam of Alexander's Abdallah, and the granddam of Volunteer and Sentinel; the dam of Lady Thorn, of Argonaut, of Daniel Lambert, of Happy Medium, of Aberdeen, of Ericsson, and manv others of our noted trottino" sires. It may in this connection be worthy of note, that those mares that have been distinguished as superior road mares rather than as turf celebrities, have generally had the most signal influence on our trot- ting families as the dams of celebrated stallions. Mental traits which are of a deep and lasting character are not acqviired at once and spontaneously, but are the gro^vth of long and continued usage and discipline. It is thus they become a jDart of the spirit or mind of the animal. By disuse they are lost or weakened. Hence it results that trotting blood, in remote and diluted channels, may not always prove a guaranty of success in breeding. But when an animal of enduring excellence is found that has a pedigree rich in the blood of our most noted trotting families, and when all the partic- ular members through which it comes have been noted for supei'iority, such an one carries a guaranty of great reproducing power. Like having successively reproduced like^ may be relied upon to continue in the same channel. The matter of temperament is nearly akin to that of trotting instinct, but is not identical with it. Many animals have the trotting inclination highly developed and deeply implanted, but are so hot- headed as to make them trot one day and be utterly intractable on another. Longfellow was a horse of a remarkably cool temperament, but he possessed no trotting instinct beyond that of any other race- horse. I once owned a mare by imp. Mango, winner of the Doncaster 58 PHILOSOPUY OF TROTTING. St. Leger, that was pronounced singly the fastest three-year-old ever trained by a veteran turfman ; but in a race she "was so excitable and hot-headed as to be utterly worthless. High temjjer is a fault very difficult to overcome, and at all times a serious obstacle to success in a trotter. This trait expressed by the terra temperament is one that has very intimate relations to the quality of speed, but in such connection it must be taken as expressive of nerve force, or the capacity for a high state of nervous vigor and action. A horse or a mare may possess a slow and dull temperament — may be incapable of a display of great or intense nervous vigor — he may be excitable and restive, and yet lacking in the extreme in nerve power. On the other hand, he may, like Gov. Sprague, be calm and placid in disposition, but when roused or called upon be capable of displaying a force and enduring energy that can only come from a nervous system organized for the most powerful and demonstrative tension. In this lies the embodiment of speed. It is for such an organism that we go to the highly -bred horse of any and all breeds. The low or the ill-bred mongrel can not be expected to display any such qualities. There is another quality of mind, that may be classed within the term temperament, that is equally important; it is that of courage, and serene confidence in the presence of danger, or that which to animal minds seems to thieaten danger. A scary or foolish horse can never be valuable for trotting purposes, although of the most perfect form, and capable of the highest flights of speed. Such a family trait was found in the descendants of Alex- ander's Edwin Forrest. They were naturally flighty, and the trait was deeply seated. Lilly Simpson was a fast trotter, but foolish and flighty; and her full brother was the worst I ever knew. The courage and docility of the descendants of Justin Morgan are proverbial, and form a large element in the character of that family, that gave them for so long a time a widespread popularity. That other mental trait, designated by the term " pluck," which signifies high courage coupled with tenacity of will, and resolute, unflinching determination, is the golden trait that should be found in every great trotter — the quality that always has a link to let out in the extreme and vital emergency of every contest — that goes for the death; and in the very jaws of defeat knows no such thing as despair, but is ready to summon power never before called out, and snatch victory in the very crisis of disaster. Such was the quality that car- ried Black Maria through her twenty-mile contest, that carried the TEMPERAMENT — PLUCK. 59 teroic Smuggler to the front at Cleveland, in 1876, and that has often saved the day and the victory in the face of almost inevitable defeat. The absence of this quality makes a quitter; and a family noted for «uch a character may well be called sawdust. It clearly asserts its origin in low blood somewhere, but is hard to overcome in breeding. It should be clearly understood that these several mental traits may exist separately or together, in various degrees, and are not altogether dependent on, or wholly independent of each other. Trotting instinct or inclination may be a deep-seated and powerful impulse, but reside in an animal of no will or nerve force, or one wholly destitute of pluck or courage. The gait may be perfection in its natural impulses, but there may be no speed. Or the whole may exist in such degree as to form an animal of the highest and most enduring excellence. It is further to be observed, that this matter of trotting instinct is a trait that in many cases has been only recently acquired, and has not been inherited from remote generations, and deepened and intensified •with each successive age. In such case, it is often that when crossed upon thoroughbreds the first crosses show a powerful impress in favor of the trotting impulses; but in subsequent crosses of the same fami- lies, and those having the same quantum of trotting blood, the trait or impulse seems to grow feeble, and inclined to disappear altogether. This is worthy of remembrance, as there are several illustrations found in crossing the JNIessenger trotting strains upon the blood of Diomed and Sir Archy where the early crosses resulted in a distinguished trotter, but the same trotter was as marked a failure in reproducing the excellence for which he was distinguished. The Star-Hambleto- tonians laid claim to all the glories of their family, until it was found that out of about thirty stallions, not over three had pi^oduced a 2:30 trotter to this date. Woodford Mambrino and Brignoli were two of the most noted performers of the sons of ]\Iambrino Chief, but that they have been successful as trotting sii-es will scarcely be claimed by ^ny. I may be met here with the inquiry as to when the trotting instinct in the Messenger and Bellfounder families originated. It would per- baps be difficult to answer this question; but it is certain they had it, and in the latter horse it was well and powerfully developed. Recurring to the physiological statements before laid dowai, it is apparent that much of that which affects the gait, or way of going of the horse, is seated in the cerebellum, and operates through the cere- bro-spinal mass. The cerebrum is the seat of the will, of courage 60 PHILOSOPHY OF TROTTING. and of resolution, and of that intellectual quality which we des!