Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1891-05-01
THE BREEDERS CONVENTION.


MR.. WALLACE STEPS DOWN AND OUT.
On the DIST of March last, the National
Association of Trotting Horse Breeders
issued a call to the different breeders
associations throughout the country, re-
questing each to send two members to a
meeting to be held at Chicago or the 22d
of April, For the purpose of comforting
with and advising them relative to plan
for organizing this association upon a
basis that will commend it to the breed
ers of the entire country, and secure for
it their cooperation and loyal support"
The call arose from a difference of opinion
between Mr.. Wallace and the board of
censors. The meeting was held pursuant
to the call and proceeded to organize. I'M
der the laws of Illinois, a corporation I'M
der the name of The American Trotting
Register Association, with capital stock
of Sl5O,000 divided into 1900 shares of
500 each, no one person to own more
than fifty shares. The new corporation
then purchased of John H. Wallace the
entire plant of the American Trottng
Register, Monthly and Year Book (as we
understand the report for the sum of
Sl3O.O0O. y board of twenty-four
directors of the company was cho-
sen, Col G. w. Hooker being one of the
board. Vermont was represented at the
convention by Col. f. II. Harrington.
secretary of the Vermont Horse Breed
ers' association, and Chas. \. Chapman.
Esq, of Ferrisburgh.
The price paid for the Wallace plant
was doubtless much more than it was
worth, but the breeders at large are to
be congratulated that it was purchased.
We deem this move long step in the
direction of straight pedigrees and hon
est work. Probably no compilation that
ever attained any respectable position, in
like circumstances, was ever so honey
combed with errors as the American
Trotting Register. 1t was impossible.
too, that it should ever be improved in
this regard as long as the late compiler
was in office, as he was so identified with
the leading errors as to feel bound to de-
fend them, and has in fact stood by the
false with as much zeal as the true. In
stead of the Independence and fairness
that ought above all things to character
lie man in that position. he was man
with hobby, in the defence of which he
has always been bigoted and cranky in
the extreme. We now trust that the bus
Isness will be in hands where it will be
run on business prnciples-that it will
be managed by those who will realize
that to ascertain and record the truth is
the only valuable office of a register. and
that in so far as a register contains what
is false, it is worse than no register at ALL
Whether the present system of "stan-
dard" registration will be continued or
not, we do not know, but presume it is
safe to predict that it will, for time at
least, either under the present rules or
some modification of them. We have
never beer among those who have looked
for the highest results from breeding up
on the system that underlies the stan
dard; system that has no ultimate
criterion save the ability, either in the
animal or his relations, to trot IA mile i'm
= 80 or better. 1t seems to us to be an
anomalous system, and one that is not
sanctioned by the successful experience
of the world. 1t is not quite consistent
with itself in this, that after making this
speed capacity the sole qualification. it
does not require the animal to have the
speed himself, or to have demonstrated
the capacity to produce it in his offspring.
in order to be standard; - so that. as we
have often remarked, it is possible to 90
on breeding generation after generation
of standard horses and mares with no
actual trotting speed, and that without
ever returning to two-thirty capacity for
sire or dam-so far as the system goes, a
standard colt might be foaled that did
not have in the line of his ancestry "A two
thirty trotter for twenty generations.
But even if it were consistent, and did
indeed as in theory rest upon speed
capacity, 1t has seemed TO us to be on too
artificial basis for the highest success.
1t is certainly open to the objection of
selecting one desirable quality alone for
cultivation, at the expense of all others. |
But the main objection in the minds of
thoughtful breeders, we believe to be
that this system of breeding fails to
produce a type.
We are inclined to think that the road |
to success in breeding lies through an
intelligent attempt to breed "A type. This /
cannot be done by selecting any one
quality and following that to its ultima
tum. The perfect horse will never be
evolved by breeding for one quality
alone. In the history of the world it has