according to the rules heretofore laid down, it is evident that this is an end most devoutly to be wished.
It would seem that, after the first importation of the Norman horse by the early French settlers, there were few importations of fresh strains of Norman blood from the mother country, in which continual systematic improvements have been made; and that, certainly, from the date of the English conquest of Canada, no efforts whatever have been made to procure the breed in its purity, or to raise its standard in height, to lighten its heavier and worse points, or to increase its speed and beauty, all of which might unquestionably be effected by judicious management. The effect of this continued breeding into the same exact strain, generation after generation, has been the same as it was with the Virginia race-horse prior to the recommencement of the importation of thorough blood, subsequent to the American Revolution. The strength, the courage, the blood, in a word, was there, but the size had deteriorated.
The first and simplest mode of improving the Canadians as Canadians—that is to say, without endeavoring to raise them to a higher degree of blood—is, to select the largest and most shapely mares of that breed, and more particularly such as are the most free from the characteristic faults of the Canadians, viz., the thick neck, low, heavy withers, straight shoulder and flat side; then to select the best stallions of that breed, having regard to the very same points named above,—and to see that the mare is in fine breeding condition when put to the horse. Care being had to follow up this plan judiciously, and to keep the mare during her pregnancy and the nourishment of her foal liberally and comfortably fed and sheltered, though not to force either mother or offspring, as is done with thorough-breds, by hot lodging and over stimulating provender,
