252 WISCONSIN AGRICULTURE. 



EXHIBITION OF TROTTING AND ROAD HORSES, 



AT STATE FAIR OF 1855. 



The exhibition of Trotting and Road Horses, which gave such 

 universal satisfaction not only to spectators but exhibitors, will 

 form the subject of this communication, from the fact that a sim- 

 ilar one will form one great feature in the coming Fair of 18-">6, 

 and I consider it essential that a record of each should be sepa- 

 rate and distinct, as they may each be needed for reference at any 

 time for years, perhaps a century hence. In preparing the Pre- 

 mium List for 1855, for horses, the Executive Committee had 

 two objects in view: one was to encourage the raising of a class 

 of horses valuable for all the business purposes of life — one 

 which should command the highest market price for pleasure or 

 work, at the same time to make the public 'perfoi-mance of each 

 horse the test of his merit, and thus do away with the too preva- 

 lent comjDlaiuts of partiality, so freely (and too often unjustly) 

 ascribed to that portion of the public who act as judges at our 

 State Fairs. To accomplish these ends, the Executive Commit- 

 tee arranged all other classed of horses about as usual, and class- 

 ed the trotting and road horses, with the premiums for each as 

 nexed. It would perhaps be as well to state that the trial took 

 place on the Cold Spring Course, which was leased expressly for 

 this trial for one day, and is one mile in circuit. A rain of some 

 days duration had only partially dried off, and competent judges 

 were of the opinion that some seconds better time would have 

 been made in every instance, had the course been in perfectly 

 good condition. As it was, the record shows that Wisconsin 

 farmers may now point to the performance of their stock of hors- 

 es, with as much and as laudable pride as to the quality of their 

 wheat, both of which, after being fairly tested, stand Number 1, 

 in market value. 



