THE HORSE. 129 



gambling and betting accompaniments with genuine contempt. 

 These srentlemen are not to be classed with the rabble of a crowd. 

 To their energy, and intelligence, and skill in breeding, we owe 

 much of the improvement in this important class of farm stock — 

 and when the State shall strike its great "general average," who 

 shall say they will not be entitled to high rank as good citizens, if 

 not as public benefactors ? 



But are there not agricultural societies who give no premiums 

 for trials of speed, who allow no trotting upon their grounds ? 

 Yes, there are two or three in our own State who hold good exhi- 

 bitions without trotting — and who are well satisfied with the sys- 

 tem — but because they do not allow it is no evidence that it does 

 not flourish in their very midst, and perhaps with greater force and 

 attended by greater evils than would be the case if they allowed 

 and controlled it. Without the State there are two or three hon- 

 orable examples of societies which have never offered a premium 

 or paid a purse for trotting. In New York, the State Agricultural 

 Society has held thirty-six annual fairs, and has never had a horse 

 trot in connection with one of them. It is to-day the highest type 

 of an agricultural society in existence in this country, and has in 

 its treasury more than $26,000. The Essex county society in 

 Massachusetts, having a history of nearly sixty years, uninter- 

 rupted by the sound of a trotter's hoof — save those of its squadron 

 of elegantly mounted Marshals at its aristocratic fairs — ^has by 

 judicious management, and, as it is termed, " purely legitimate 

 premiums," salted down under its treasury pad the snug little sum 

 of $30,000. This last named society is one of the most useful in 

 the Commonwealth, and embraces upon its roll of members some- 

 of the most distinguished names in the State. I am under obliga- 

 tions to its officers for kindly attentions, and shall not soon forget 

 the sight of its magnificent dinner, at which six hundred persona 

 sat down to elegantly decked tables, after which grand speeches 

 were spoken by some of the most eloquent men in the "Old Com- 

 monwealth." But after all, my impression was that its exhibition 

 ranked low as compared with many in our own State, (aside from 

 its one grand feature of a well conducted plowing match); and I 

 came away from Danvers at the close of two happy days saying 

 to myself: " The managers of Old Essex are gentlemen, they go 

 in for a good time, they pay their own bills, and with $30,000 in 

 their pockets they can have horse trotting or not, just as they 

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