IMPROVEMENT OF THE BREED BY MEANS OF FOREIGN CROSSINGS.
However, if with strength acquired and faults corrected, style is not
attained, it may be sought after by judicious crosses with well-chosen
foreign types.
Two different breeds present themselves to us as means of improving
our stock by the introduction of foreign blood: the Arabian, and the
English, with its variations. Starting from this point, let us study
both and endeavor to discover, by analogy, which one would best suit,
or, rather, which one is the least unfavorable to the purpose.
I will examine, one after another, these two methods in detail, leaving
to the cultivator, who is most interested in the question, the choice
of employing that which seems to him the best and the most appropriate,
taking into view the fertility and the nature of his section. But
I must, from the beginning, lay down as a principle that both are
more expensive than is interbreeding. A race to become fit to receive
a foreign cross, should be prepared for it in advance, in order to
shorten, as much as possible, the distance existing between the breed
so formed and proved and that which we seek to create.
In fact, the foreign cross can do no good, unless the desired
qualities in the race upon which it is made are permanent, fixed, and
characteristic.
Why not think also of increasing our resources by better cultivation,
by liberal feeding, by choosing, as I have said above, among the race
of the country, the most perfect types and those most likely to correct
what is vicious while they impart their own good qualities? Methods of
this kind, pursued for a long time and persistently, are alone capable
of preparing, without inconvenience, for a foreign cross.
Drain your wet meadows, irrigate your hill-sides, fertilize your soil
by the use of improving manures, make productive fields everywhere,
create meadows, grow heavy oats, enlarge your stables and make them
clean, healthy and airy. When you have done this, then, but not before,
you can cross your races with foreign blood, more delicate than yours
and accustomed to and requiring greater care and attention.
I know that this slowly progressive manner does not possess the
sympathies of those who, at the commencement, are restless at not
having already reached the goal. But it is sure and free from errors,
whilst the other, (France has but too many examples of this), after
money squandered and years wasted, reduces the breeder who has recourse
to it to a more miserable condition than that from which he wished to
escape.
Our _furia francese_, which renders us, irresistible in war, our
fancy for new fashions, which gives birth to those wonders which the
world hails with ecstacy, and our proverbial inconstancy, cause us
almost always to go astray in breeding. Fashion has no sooner praised
horses of such and such a race, of this or that model, or such and
such a coat, than we must immediately produce the like, without first
ascertaining whether or no our race be prepared for crossing with them.
The result of such crosses would be about as valuable as a discussion
between a fishwoman and an academician!
Nature, left to herself, is a thousand times more intelligent than the
man of systems. Are there ever found, among the wild animals, among
lions, tigers, stags, chamois, etc., either spavins, tumors, periodical
inflammations, or any of those thousand infirmities with which our
domestic horse is afflicted?—And here is the reason: in the rutting
season, the possession of the females becomes the incitement to bloody
battles. It is always the strongest, the most vigorous, the bravest,
the most venturesome, and the best made stallion, which receives as a
reward for his victory, the submission and the admiring love of the
harem.
But I assume Perche prepared, by numerous and good crossings of the
race within itself, to try, with more sureness, foreign crossings. Two
principal types, as we have just seen, are presented for this: the Arab
type and the English, which is itself derived from the Arab.
The foreign cross I only speak of with diffidence, because with it I
enter unknown regions of inductions and perhaps, alas! into ways of
deception and ruin, if it is not effected with the greatest prudence
and judgment.
Foreign crossings, systematically effected from the north to the south,
and from the south to the north, have had Buffon for their apostle,
and, under the cloak of his genius, and thanks to the authority of
his word, they have reached everywhere. But how enumerate the evils
brought about by a school, whose disciples are still numerous, thanks
to a perseverance irritated but not deterred by failure? These evils
have been branded in large characters on all our breeds, since that day
when they became the objects, not of constant and uniform care, but
considered as subjects of no consequence, upon which individuals might
experiment in order to test their theories, and set themselves up as
teachers.
Since then, we have no more types properly belonging to distinct
districts, but a confused assembly, combining with rare qualities the
defects of this or that cross and twenty others more. Everywhere in
turn, from one region or another, were stallions employed of different
types and races: those of the south transported to the north, and
those of the north to the south; and that without preparation, and
without attention to the differences of soil and climate of the
various regions. All these practices have injured our breeds without
successfully retaining their own native qualities.
[Illustration: Decoration]