Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1896-10-02
CLIMATE AND BREEDING.
From the Horse Revlew.l

FROM the itorSc htNlcN'I
What effect has climate upon the effort
to breed to type; This question came
up not long ago in the course of a con.
versation to which a gentleman who has
been IN France and Germany the greater
part of the last four years was party,
and his answer is well worthy of careful
consideration. He said: he French
breeder can take the same blood we use
and produce horses that are larger and
more shapely at maturity" Then he
was asked to give his opinion as to the
probability of success in transpanting
the French horses to America, and his
reply was that the climate here, no mat
ter in what section, seemed to operate to
reduce the size of the progeny of all i'm
ported horses. In other words, that the
most common height for a horse OF the
harness breeds in America would be
l5.2 as against lG in France. But d,
he continued. 1.-THE French horses are
not as prompt as our own, except OF
course those that are OF medium height,
and it is admitted that our l6-hand
horses of the trotting breed are better
drivers and more SNOWY III harness than
any France has ever produced. There is
something i'm the French horse that is
desirable, but it cannot be secured and
kept except by breeding and developing
in France and keeping the horses there.
We believe that if the student would
follow up the line of investigation sug-
gested by these scraps of talk, he would
be able to demonstrate that type in
horses is due more largely to climate
than to any other cause. There is some
thing about the English thoroughbred
that is not to be found in his French or
American kin and is only equalled by
the Australiau-in fact the latter eXcels
in many respects. The Shetland pony
is not a freak ne is largely creature of
climate. The Russian trOtter suggests,
at sight. the place of his birth. Trans
plant any of these to the United States
and there is almost certain to follow a
change in the type. 1t is not sufficiently
pronounced in the first generation to
excite comment, but carried to the sec
'Ond and succeeding ones will assert
itself. All of which serves to PROVE the
folly of attempting to produce on the
western prairies year by year the type
OF horse that has resulted from CEN
fury of use and breeding in the hills of
Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire
or the salubriOus climate of France. We
can, in all probability, fix our own types
provided the whims of fashion are elm
mated and styles in horses cease tC
change with those of wraps and bon
nets. No amount of advice will aid &
breeder in this matter. If he thinks hi:
stallion is suited and he can gather the
brood mares that he believes will do, hi:
experiment. for that Is all it will be
may result in a colt or two that at ma
tuutv will be of the desired type. Liv
ing long enough that breeder can st
mate his breeding stock that, in con
nection with generous wedding GU
process, he can breed close to that type
but he cannot do it merely by buying al
imported stallion of a given type, anC
he would not be reasonably certain of i
if he imported all his brood mares
Those well-meaning people who of lat
have told breeders just how they cal
breed what they want with unerrin.
certainty, are no doubt honest but wa
fully misguided. Some day the Amer
,,.;lI I,,t 80
will be a score of variations, due entire
~ to climate and feed, but we vii
never see the time when any foreig
tyre, transplanted to America, has re
tanned its distinguished characteristic
through more than one generation