Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1894-02-02
JOSEPH BATTELL,
MiddlehnIY. Vt.
AN EXPERIMENTAL BREEDING.

AN EXPER lMENT IN BREEDING.
The followings article is sent us for
publication in connection with the adj
vertlsement, of the sale of Arab and
Arab-Clay horses by Peter c. Kellogg
& Co. of New York on the 22d and
23d inst:
"Mr. Randolph Huntington has al
ways maintained that old Henry Clay,
son of Andrew Jackson and the trotting
mare Surry, was essentially Barb
horse. His grandsire, imp. Grand Bas-
haw, was brought from Tripoli in Bar
barry and imp. Messenger carried many
Barb crosses, and the early Canadian
horses from which Surry was undoubt-
eddy descended care generally believed
to have been largely of Barb origin.
From these combined strains old Henry
Clay, the founder of the Clay line, was
chiefly descended. The Barb is Moor
ish horse that.undoubtedly sprung years
ago from true Arab sources and was
carried by the Moors into Spain, from
which country they spread into France.
Now the Barb horse, whether taken from
Tripoli, Algiers, Morocco, Spain or
France, was found az powerful element
in the formation of the English thorough
bred horse and shares equally with the
true Arab and Turkish Arab in the blood
cause of that breed. That the Canadian
horse of FIench stock shows Characters
tics of the Barb is clear. While it would
be impossible for Mr.. Huntington to
show by DEFINITELY pedigree that Henry
Clay was so essentially a Barb horse by
multiplied lines of inheritance as to be
thoroughbred, so to speak, in innate pro
clivity to transmit to his descendants
the dominant features of the Barb, thus
showing the direct road from cause to
effect, yet it is frequently possible to
reason from effect back to cause with
the greatest certainty BY this rule Mr.
Huntington iustities himself in regarding
Henry Clay as essentially a Barb horse.
He claims that he transmitted Il type,
and that the Barb type and the uniform
ity and degree with which he transmitted
it proved him TO have been for practical
breeding purposes thoroughbred
Barb. OF the three Arab sources he
claims that the Barb is the source of
bold action and that where thorough
bred blood is found to mix successfully
with the trotting bloodsit is attributable
to dominating influence of the Barb
elements in its composition. Governor
Stanford used to describe a certain con-
formation of the rear parts that he al
ways wanted when he selected thor
oughbred mare for crossing with tTot-
ting stallion. When near twenty years
ago, the elder Mr. Covey, father of the
present superintendent OF PalO Alto
ranch, came East to buy thoroughbred
mares under the governors instructions
he described to me the, peculiar confor-
nation he was seeking. This was long
before heard 1t described by the gov
ernor himself. He wanted it because
his observation had taught him that with
it he could get nearer his idea of true
trotting action than without it. As
recall the description of this particular
conformation as given by both Mr..
COvey and Gov. Stanford, it strikes me
that it is almost identcally the same that
Mr.. Huntington gives as marking the
deviation of the Barb from the types of
the true Arab and the Turk. If both
breeders were correct in their theories,
it is evident that Governor Stanford
sought to profit by his observation of an
effect. probably without stopping to look
up its cause, while Mr.. Huntington, hav-
ing discovered the blood cause, has also
gone about perpetuatlng the effect.
"MOst people havel been inclined to
discountenance Mr.. Huntington's claims
to anything of a thoroughbred character
in the breeding powers of old Henry
Clay, but all must concede that he is a
link in the longest lines of unbroken
success in the production of high class
trotters that the Register contains. The
direct male line that runs through Henry
Clay thus sustained itself for greater
number of generations of speed that be-
got speed than any other line. Count
them: Young Bashaw,i ANDREW Jackson,
Henry Clay, old Cassius NJ. Clay, Neaves
Casslus NJ. Clay, Clay Pilot, The Moore,
Sultan, Stamboul. But when we con-
slider that off-shOots of this line, diverg-
ing at Henry Clay and at every link
this side OF him, have always had a say