128 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, 



where, the associations are proper and the whole thing conducted 

 honorably and fairly. Last fall, I saw upon the fair grounds 

 of your society, an exhibition of family horses upon the track, 

 for the somewhat small premium offered by the society for this 

 class of horses, and I am sure those who witnessed the trial will 

 bear with me that the twelve horses, driven by their owners a 

 half mile and repeat, formed a featu're in the exhibition which gave 

 as much general satisfaction to the large crowd present as would 

 a more closely contested race by noted trotters. The usual accom- 

 paniments of the race-course — where pure racing so to speak, or 

 racing alone, is carried on — quarrelling, profanity, intoxication, 

 gambling and public betting — may, and should always be every- 

 where forbidden and prevented in connection with fairs of agri- 

 cultural societies. The morals of the community are of more value 

 than all the 2.30 horses in the country. I abhor and detest from 

 the bottom of my soul all these vices in every form, and have not 

 command of words suflSciently forcible to express my contempt 

 for them. They are mean and low, they lead to other forms of 

 iniquity, and are debasing in all their influences. But I still insist 

 there is no more occasion for immorality in any of these forms, in 

 connection with a trial of the speed of horses, than in connection 

 with an exhibition of the strength of oxen, or the skill of skaters 

 upon an ice rink Bad men will, nothwithstanding the force of 

 law and the public sentiment against it, manage somehow to ply 

 their nefarious business ; they should not and they need not do it 

 upon an exhibition ground or in sight or hearing of any one — and 

 there is or may be law enough to prevent it. If a race is to take 

 place on the ice of this river to-morrow, or on a fair ground any 

 time, what is to prevent a number of men from getting together 

 in a room at a hotel, in a corner saloon or other out of the way 

 place, and selling pools on that race? This they may do on the 

 price of greenbacks, on the result of an election, on the state of 

 the weather, or a hundred similar occurrences — and it is done 

 every day — but would this fact, if known, be likely to stop a man 

 from voting, or prevent him from taking a sum of money that was 

 honestly his due ? Probably not. Furthermore, I know, and you 

 all know, scores of gentlemen who may perhaps be termed " horse 

 men," who love a good horse, who don't like to take the dust of a 

 fellow traveller on a public turnpike, and who, perhaps, are proud 

 of a horse that can trot well down in the " thirties " — who never 

 in all their lives had a dollar up on a race, and who detest the 



