9° AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



THE HORSE FOR THE FARM AND THE FARMER. 

 By Dr. G. M. Twitcpiell, Augusta, Me. 



Among all the departments of farm work the friends and 

 champions of each find their followers, for in the economy of 

 nature many men of many minds fill the universe and each, fol- 

 lowing the natural trend of his desires, seeks that avenue of labor 

 which is most congenial, or seeks to bring about those relations 

 by which and through which this congenial line of work may 

 be carried forward successfully. 



For nearly a score of years a peculiar condition has seemed 

 to dwarf all enthusiasm for horse breeding. The craze for 

 speed, in the lottery of haphazard breeding, filled the barns with 

 what had little value when the bubble burst, yet, strange to state, 

 the owners of good brood mares sold as rapidly as possible not 

 the trotting bred colt, which so often had not a single requisite 

 of merit, but the brood mare, the possible fountain head of 

 revenue. As these disappeared, breeding ceased and the West, 

 gorged as it was with a mass of indifferent stuff, began to pour 

 its "chunks" into our market to do the work on the farms not 

 possible to be done by the native bred horses. 



This in brief was the situation through which we have been 

 passing, and while the conservative press and the institute 

 speaker have been urging the breeding with reference to a famine 

 sure to come, the sight of a weanling following its dam has beeo 

 a novelty rather than a most common occurrence. The famine 

 came. The fact of the great dearth of good road horses of size, 

 stamina and courage forced itself upon the public mind, and 

 buyers, who formerly could find a carload in any given section, 

 were forced to pick up one here and another there, going over 

 towns and counties, until the shortage has become so marked 

 that would-be purchasers have practically dropped out of New 

 England and seek their supply from the ranches of the far West. 



Meanwhile the greatest curse which could befall our New 

 England agriculture has been met in the dull mettled, low headed, 



