_To the Editor of_ SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN SUPPLEMENT:
In your issue for August 13 is "A Proposition for a Government
Breeding Farm for Cavalry Horses," by Lieutenant S.C. Robertson
U.S.A., First Cavalry. The article is national in conception, deep in
careful thought, which only gift, with practical experience with
ability, could so ably put before the people. As a business
proposition, it is creditable to an officer in the United States army.
The husbandman and agriculturist, also the navy and scientific
explorations, each in turn present their wants before the government
for help in some way, and receive assistance. The seaman wants new and
improved or better ships, and the navy gets them; but the poor
cavalryman must put up with any kind of a craft he can get; the horse
is the cavalryman's ship--war vessel on land.
The appeal of Lieut. Robertson to our government for better horses is
reasonable; and he tries to help the government with a carefully
studied business proposition through which to enable our government to
grant the supplication of the army. That Lieut. Robertson loves a
horse, and knows what a good one is, no man can dispute who has read
his article; but as to how it can best be produced, he does not know.
While I for one applaud both his article and his earnestness, with
your permission I will make some suggestions as to the breeding side
of his proposition. The business portion will, of course, come under
the ordnance department in any event.
As for a government breeding establishment for any kind of livestock
in this great agricultural country, I feel that such would be at
variance with the interests of husbandry in America.
The breeding of horses is particularly an important branch of
agriculture, and the farmers should be assisted by the government in
the improvement of their horses, until they are raised to a standard
which in case of emergency could supply the army at a moment's notice
with the best horses in the world at the least possible expense.
Our government Agricultural Bureau is constantly spending thousands of
dollars to help the agriculturist in matter of better and greater
varieties of improved seeds and the better way for cultivation. Now,
the seed of animal life is as important as in vegetable life to the
interest and welfare of the husbandman, which also means the
government. For the government to become a monopolist of any important
branch in agriculture is not in harmony with the principles of our
republican-democratic form of government. While advocating a
protective tariff against outside depreciation of home industries, our
government should not in any way approach monarchical intrusion upon
the industries of its husbandmen. Our government cannot afford to make
its agriculturists competitors in so important a matter to them (the
farmers) as in the raising of horses; but the government can see to it
that the husbandman has a standard for excellence in the breeding of
horses which shall be recognized as a national standard the civilized
world over. Then, by that standard, and through our superior
advantages over any other civilized nation in the vast extent of
cheap and good grass lands, with abundance of pure water, and with all
temperatures of climate, we can grow, as a people, the best horses in
the world, to be known as the National Horse of America. Our
government must have a blood standard for the breeding of horses, by
which our horses can be bred and raised true to a type, able to
reproduce itself in any country to which we may export them; and the
types can be several, as our territory is so great and demands so
varied, but blood and breeding must be the standard for each type. Our
fancy breeders have a standard now, called a "time standard," which is
purely a gambling standard, demoralizing in all its tendencies to both
man and beast. With this the government need have nothing to do, for
it will die out of itself as the masses learn more of it, and
especially would it cease to be, once the government established a
_blood_ standard for the breeding of all horses, and particularly a
National Horse.
When the cereal crops of our country are light, or the prices fall
below profitable production, the farmer has always a colt or two to
sell, thus helping him through the year. In place of constantly
importing horses from France, England, and Scotland, where they are
raised mostly in paddocks, and paying out annually millions of
dollars, it is our duty to be exporting.
As an American I am ashamed when I see paraded at our county or state
fairs stallions and mares wearing the "blue ribbon" of superexcellence,
with boastful exclamation by the owner of "a thoroughbred imported
Percheron, or a thoroughbred imported French coacher, or a
thoroughbred imported Scotch Clyde, or a thoroughbred imported English
coacher, or a thoroughbred imported English Shire, or a thoroughbred
imported English Cleveland Bay!"
The American farmer and his boys look on aghast at the majesty and
beauty of these prize winners over our big-headed, crowbar-necked,
limp-tailed, peeked-quartered horses called "standard bred!" What
standard? "Time standard," as created by a man who is neither a
horseman nor a breeder; but because of the lack of intelligent
information and want of courage upon the part of a few, this man's
_ipse dixit_ has become law for the American breeders until such time
as cultured intelligence shall cause them to rebel. It soon will.
It is indeed time for the government to step in and regulate our horse
breeding. Of all the national industries there is none of more
importance than that of horses. More so in America than in any other
country, because our facilities are greater, and results can be
greater under proper regulation. Lieut. Robertson has proved to be the
right man in the right place, to open the door for glorious results to
our nation. No one man or a small body of men can regulate this
horse-breeding industry, but as in France, Russia, and England, the
government must place its hand and voice.
We are indeed an infant country, but have grown to an age where
parental restraint must be used now, if ever. We have millions of
farmers in America, breeding annually millions of horses; and except
we have another internal war, our horses will soon become a burden and
a pest.
There are numbers of rich men throughout the country breeding fancy
horses, for sport and speculation, but they only add to the increasing
burden of useless animals, except for gambling purposes; for they are
neither work horses, coach horses, nor saddle horses. Our farmers of
the land are the breeders, as our recent war of the rebellion
testified. The war of 1812, the Mexican war of 1847, and the war of
1861 each called for horses at a moment's notice, and our farmers
supplied them, destroying foundation bloods for recuperation. From
1861 to 1863 the noble patriotism of our farmers caused them to vie
with each other as to who should give the best and least money to help
the government; and cannot our government now do something for the
strength and sinew of the land, the farmers?
I was dealing in horses, more or less, from 1861 to 1863 (as I had
been before and long after), and many was the magnificent horse I saw
led out by the farmer for the government, at a minimum price, when,
previous to 1861, $400, $500, and even $600 was refused for the same
animals. Horses that would prove a headlight to any gentleman's coach
in the city, and others that would trot off fourteen to sixteen miles
an hour on the road as easy as they would eat their oats, went into
the cavalry or artillery or to baggage trains. What were left for
recuperation at the close of the war were mongrels from Canada or the
Indian and wild lands of the West, and such other lazy brutes as our
good farmers would not impose upon the government with or later were
condemned by the army buyers. These were largely of the Abdallah type
of horse, noted for coarseness, homeliness, also soft and lazy
constitutions. No one disputes the brute homeliness of the Abdallah
horse, and in this the old and trite saying of "Like begets like" is
exemplified in descendants, with which our country is flooded. The
speed element of which we boast was left in our mares of Arabian blood
through Clay and Morgan, but was so limited in numbers as to be an
apology for our present time standard in the breeding of fancy horses.
Knowing that Abdallah blood produced no speed, and being largely
ignorant as to the breeding of our mares, which were greatly scattered
over the land after the war, some kind of a guess had to be made as to
the possibility of the colts we were breeding, hence the time standard
fallacy. But it has ruined enough men, and gone far enough.
Upon Lieutenant Robertson's proposition, a turn can be made, and a
solid base for blood with breeding of all American horses can be
demanded by the government for the country's good.
From the earliest history of man, as a people increased in wealth,
they gave attention to mental culture with refinement; following which
the horse was cultivated to a high _blood_ standard with national
pride. From the Egyptians, the Moors, the Romans, and Britons to
France, Russia, and Prussia we look, finding the horse by each nation
had been a national pride--each nation resorting to the same primitive
blood from which to create its type, and that primitive was the
Arabian. Scientists have theorized, men have written, and boys have
imagined in print, as to some other than the Arabian from which to
create a type of horse, and yet through all ages we find that Arabian
has been the one stepping stone for each advanced nation upon which
blood to build its national horse.
Scientists have reasoned and explored, trying to prove to the
contrary, but what have they proved? The Arabian horse still remains
the fact.
The lion, the tiger, the leopard, still remain the same, as does the
ass and the zebra. As God created and man named them, with all animal
life, subject to the will of man, so do they all continue to remain
and reproduce, each true to its type, free from imperfections or
disease; also the same in vegetable and mineral life. In animal life,
the build, form, color, size, and instincts remain the same, true to
its blood from the first, and yet all was created for man through
which to amuse him and make him work.
It is a fact that all of man's creations from any primitive life,
either animal or vegetable, will degenerate and cease to be, while of
God's perfect creations, all continue the same.
We will condense on the horse. The Arabian is the most pliable in its
blood of any other known to man. From it, any other type can be
created. Once a type has been created, it must be sustained in itself
by close breeding, which can be continued for quite a number of years
without degeneracy. For invigoration or revitalizing, resort must be
made to its primitive blood cause. To go out of the family to colder
or even warmer creations of man means greater mongrelization of both
blood and instinct, also to invite new diseases.
Nothing is more infatuating than the breeding of horses. A gifted
practical student in the laws of animal life may create a new and
fixed type of horse, but it can be as quickly destroyed by the
multitude, through ignorant mongrelization.
In the breeding of horses, our people are wild; and in no industry can
our government do more good than in making laws relating to their
breeding. It can father the production of a national horse without
owning a breeding farm. It can make _blood_ and _breeding_ a standard
for different types, and see to it that its laws are obeyed, thus
benefiting all the agriculturists, and have breeding farms in America;
and also itself as a government, financially. We must not however
begin upon the creation of other nations, but independently upon God's
gift to man, as did England, France, and Russia. That a government
should interfere in the breeding of horses is no new thing. The Arabs
of the desert boast to this day of King Solomon's stud of horses; but
in each and every instance where a nation has regulated and encouraged
the breeding of the horse to a high standard of excellence, they have
all begun at the primitive, or Arabian. Thus England in boasting of
her thoroughbred race horse admits it to be of Arabian origin. Russia
in boasting of her Orloff trotting and saddle horse tells you it is of
Arabian origin. France boldly informs you that her Percheron is but an
enlarged Arabian, and offers annual special premiums to such as
revitalize it with fresh Arabian blood.
After the war of 1812 our forefathers imported many Arabian stallions
to recuperate the blood of their remnants in horses. From 1830 such
prominent men as Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay said all they could by
private letter and public speech to encourage the importation of and
breeding freely to the Arabian horse, and specially did the State of
Kentucky follow the advice of Henry Clay, so that from 1830 up to 1857
Kentucky had more Arabian stallions in her little district than the
combined States of the Union. Kentucky has had a prestige in her mares
since the war, and it comes in the larger amount of Arabian blood
influence she has had in them, than could be found elsewhere. Kentucky
is shut in, as it were, and retaining her mares largely impregnated
with Arabian blood, all that was necessary for them to do was to get
trotting-bred stallions from New York State, then eclipse all other
States in the produce. While I cheerfully award to Kentucky all credit
due to it, I am not willing that Lieut. Robertson should make his base
for government breeding establishment sectional, nor would I submit to
England through Kentucky. I am too American for that.
For cavalry purposes, the Prussian horse is the best in the world, and
is also Arabian in its closest foundation.
To get at this blood question more definitely, let us inquire into
these different recognized self-producing national types of horses
abroad.
First is the English thoroughbred race horse, which is simply an
improved Arab. The functions of this English national horse are but
twofold--to run races and to beget himself, after which he ceases to
be of value. He is not a producer of any other type of value; to breed
him out of his family is mongrelism and degeneracy, so we don't want
him, even though we could humiliate our American pride through our
loved State of Kentucky.
Count Orloff of Russia was a great horseman, exceedingly fond of
horseback riding independent of the chase. He tried in 1800 to breed a
satisfactory horse from the English thoroughbred race horse, but went
from bad to worse until he resorted to the ever-pliant blood of the
Arabian. He sent to Egypt and secured a thoroughbred Arabian stallion,
paying $8,000 for him (in our money). This horse he bred to Danish
mares, largely of Arabian blood, and created a very stout, short-backed
horse, standing from 15½ to 15¾ and 16 hands high, of great trotting
speed, also able to run to weight, and with good disposition, which
the English thoroughbred did not have. This type he continued to
close-breed, going back to the Arabian for renewed stoutness. At his
death, his estates passed to his daughter, who continued her father's
breedings until the Russian government purchased the entire
collection, about 1846, since when the Russian government Orloff
trotting and saddle horse has become famous the world over as a
first-class saddle, cavalry, stage coach, and trotting horse combined.
They are broken at three years of age, and scarce any that cannot beat
2:30 at trotting speed, and from that down to 2:15 in their crude way
of hitching and driving. This is something for American breeders to
think very interestedly upon.
France wanted heavy draught horses, also proud coach horses; so rather
than go to any competing nation for their created types, her
enterprising subjects took the same Arabian blood, and from it created
the beautiful Percheron, also French coach horses, so greatly valued
and admired the world over, and which the gifted and immortal Rosa
Bonheur has so happily reproduced upon canvas. Can America show any
kind of a horse to tempt her brush?
With regard to a foundation for a government or national horse, I am
certain so gifted and able United States officer as Mr. S.C. Robertson
did not know that it was unnecessary to go to England for the blood of
their national horse, even though we smuggled it through Kentucky or
any other of our States. Again, it would be impossible to produce any
type of a horse from the English thoroughbred, except a dunghill, and
Mr. Robertson would not have his government breed national dunghills!
I love England as our mother country, but am an American, born and
dyed in the wool to our independence, from the "Declaration."
Now let us see what England says of her thoroughbred: "He is no longer
to be relied upon for fulfilling his twofold functions as a racer and
reproducer of himself. He is degenerating in stoutness and speed. As a
sire he has acquired faults of constitution and temper which, while
leaving him the best we have, is not the best we should aspire to
have. His stoutness and speed are distinctly Arabian qualities, to
which we must resort for fresh and pure blood." We have shown that the
Englishman says "his thoroughbred is full of radical and growing
defects in wind, tendons, feet, and temper, and that his twofold
functions are to run races and reproduce himself, which are the end of
his purpose." Does our government want breeding farms upon which to
nurse these admitted "defects," including the "confirmed roarer," for
cavalry horses? I quote again: "Those who have had most to do with him
are ready to admit that he no longer possesses the soundness,
stoutness, speed, courage, and beauty he inherited from his Arabian
parentage. As a sire for half-bred stock, he may do for those who will
use him, but we must resort to the Arabian if we would revitalize and
sustain our thoroughbred race horse."
In the face of these statements, in print abroad, would Lieut.
Robertson make the base for our proposed national horse that of the
English thoroughbred, scattering the weeds from such imperfect
breedings among the farmers of our land?
I am writing as an old horseman and breeder, and not as a newspaper
man or young enthusiast, although the enthusiasm of youth is still in
me, for which I am thankful.
This question of horse breeding I have been deeply interested in for
forty years past. Let me quote to the reader from one of many letters
I have received from Sir Wilfrid Seawen Blunt during the past seven
years. His practical knowledge of the English thoroughbred race horse
and his blood cause, the Arabian, is the equal if not superior to any
other one man of this present age.
With his wife, Lady Anne, he dwelt with the different tribes of the
desert, studying the Arabs as a people, in their customs and habits,
also traditions with beliefs. In matter of their horses, Mr. Blunt
made a special study, while Lady Anne put her diaries in book form
after her return, and which book should be owned by every cultured and
educated lady in America. After spending a year in Arabia, traveling
both sides of the Euphrates and through Mesopotamia, as no other
Anglo-Saxons have been known to do, living with the different Bedouin
tribes of the desert as they lived, Mr. Blunt and his wife, Lady Anne,
came out with sixteen of the choicest bred mares to be found, also two
stallions, the mares mostly with foal. These were placed upon their
estates, "Crabbet Park," to continue inbreeding as upon the desert,
pure to its blood. As this question in itself will make a long and
interesting article, I will avoid it at present, quoting to the reader
from one of my old letters:
"CRABBET PARK, SUSSEX, ENGLAND.
"Dear Sir: Political matters have prevented an earlier reply to
your last.
"I am well satisfied with my present results, and shall not
abandon what I have undertaken. The practical merits of Arabian
blood are well understood by us.
"Our sale of young stock maintains itself in good prices in
spite of bad times; indeed, my average within the past two years
has risen from £84 to £102 on the pure-breds sold as yearlings,
and we receive the most flattering and satisfactory accounts
from purchasers, although it is known that I retain the best of
each year's produce, and so have greatly improved my breeding
stock.
"You speak of the opinions of the press as against you. The
sporting press are not breeders, but are the mouthpiece of
prejudices. We have had them somewhat against us, but they now
view things in more friendly tone.
"For immediate use in running races (in which the sporting press
are chiefly interested), the Arabian in his undeveloped state
and under size will not compete with the English race horse.
This fact has caused racing men to doubt his other many and more
important merits; indeed, it is only those who have had personal
experience of him that as yet acknowledge them.
"The strong points in the Arabian are many:
"_First_, his undoubted soundness in constitution, in _wind_,
_limb_, and _feet_. It will be noticed that the Englishman must
have soundness in wind, limb, and feet, showing that their
thoroughbred is the thorn in that particular. The Arabian has
also wonderful intelligence, great beauty, and good disposition,
with an almost affectionate desire to adapt himself to your
wishes.
"In breeding, I have found the pure-breds delicate during the
first few weeks after birth, and have lost a good many,
especially those foaled early in the year; yet it is a
remarkable fact that during the eight years of my breeding them,
I have had no serious illness in the stables; once over the
dangerous age, they seem to have excellent constitutions, and
are always sound in _wind_, _limb_, and _feet_.
"_Second_, they are nearly all good natural and _fast walkers_,
also fast trotters; and from the soundness of their feet are
especially fitted for fast road work, being able to do almost
any number of miles without fatigue.
"_Third_, they are nearly all good natural jumpers, and I have
not had a single instance of a colt that would not go across
country well to hounds.
"They are very bold fencers, requiring neither whip nor spur.
They carry weight well, making bold and easy jumps where other
larger horses fail.
"_Fourth_, they have naturally good mouths, and good tempers,
with free and easy paces; so that one who has accustomed
himself to riding a pure-bred Arabian will hardly go back, if he
can help it, to any other sort of horse.
"There is all the difference in riding the Arabian and the
ordinary English hunter or half-bred that there is in riding in
a well-hung gig or a cart without springs.
"_Fifth._ As sires for half-bred stock, the Arabian may not be
better than a _first-class_ English thoroughbred, but is
certainly better than a _second_-class one, and _first_-class
sires are out of the reach of all ordinary breeders; for that
reason I recommend a fair trial of his quality, confident your
breeders will not be disappointed.
"With good young mares who require a horse to give their
offspring quality, that is to say, beauty, with courage and
stoutness, and with a turn of speed for fast road work, the
Arabian is better than any class of English thoroughbreds that
are used for cross breeding.
"I trust then for that reason you will not allow yourself to be
discouraged by the slowness of the people to appreciate all the
merits of the Arabian at once.
"Our breeders are full of prejudices, and only experience can
teach them the value of things outside their own circle of
knowledge.
"I have no doubt whatever that truth will in the end prevail;
but you must have patience. Remember that a public is always
impatient, and most often unreasonably so.
"My stud I keep at a permanent strength of twelve brood mares,
and as many fillies growing in reserve.
"You ask me regarding the _pacing_ gait. I have seen it in the
pure-bred Arabs on the desert; and in many parts of the East it
is cultivated, notably in Asia Minor and Barbary. The walk,
pace, amble, trot, and run are found in the Arabian, and either
can be cultivated as a specialty.
"If you think any of my letters to you are of general value to
your people, I am quite willing you should so use them.
"I am, very truly yours,
"WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT.
"To RANDOLPH HUNTINGTON, Rochester, N.Y."
My experience with Arabian blood the past seven years justifies all
that Mr. Blunt has predicted to me from time to time. So also do old
letters by Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay hold out the same inducements
to the breeders of Kentucky and Tennessee in their day.
From my long years of experience in all classes of horses, I am frank
to say to-day that I would not be without a thoroughbred Arabian
stallion on my place, and journalists who inform their readers that
they "are liable to splints, ringbones, and spavins," give themselves
away to all intelligent readers and breeders as exceedingly
superficial in matter of horses; for ringbones and spavins are
positively unknown among the Arabs. The way to get rid of such
imperfections in our mongrel breed of horses is to fill them up with
pure Arab blood.
Such paper men also talk about "_fresh Diomed_" and "fresh Messenger
blood," as though there had been a drop of it in never so diluted form
for any influence these many years, of course forgetting that _Diomed_
was a very strongly _inbred Arabian_ horse. He came to this country
when 21 years old.
He was foaled 1777, and arrived in Virginia in 1798. From his old age
and rough voyage in an old-fashioned ship, it required nearly a year
to recuperate from the journey, and was 23 years old before he could
do stud service to any extent. Then, at no time to his death was he a
sure foal getter, even to a few mares. He died in 1808, thirty-one
years old, long enfeebled and unfit for service.
Between 1808 and 1887 is quite a period of time, during which we have
had four different wars, beginning with 1812, and how much Diomed
blood does the reader suppose there is in this country? Yet I take up
daily and weekly papers devoted to horse articles, extolling the value
of _Diomed_ blood as cause for excellence in some young horse. Are we
a nation of idiots to be influenced by such nonsense?
I wish there was fresh Diomed blood; thus the public would know what
Arab blood had done for England. So I can say of imported Messenger.
What our breeders want is good, solid information in print, and not
the; dreamings of some professional writer for money. For myself, I am
on the downhill side of life, but so long as I can help the young by
pen or example, I shall try.
RANDOLPH HUNTINGTON.
Rochester, N.Y.
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