124 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



was no longer carried on by means of " tote teams ;" and as this 

 agency began to be employed for these purposes, men began to 

 train their horses to trot and run. The locomotive was a fast 

 team, arid men tried to see if their horses could not out-do it: — • 

 and it is an interesting fact, which I think has some connection 

 with the theory being put forth, that the building of railroads in 

 this country and the origin of horse racing or trotting, have their 

 date at very nearly the same period, the year 1827 witnessing the 

 building of the first railroad in Massachusetts, and the same year, 

 or possibly a year earlier, the establishment of authorized trotting 

 in New York. 



Now, all that has been said (and there is more of it than has 

 perhaps been necessary), is somewhat gratuitous, and may be 

 thrown aside by you as fast as I have read it. It has little con- 

 nection with, although it may be regarded as a sort of introduc- 

 tion to the real topic which this Board at its last annual meeting 

 assigned to me for treatment, viz : that of " horse racing at fairs, 

 in regard to its influence both financially and morally upon the 

 comraunitj'." 'In performing this task, I have nothing to do, as 

 you will see, with the breeding of horses, with the importance and 

 magnitude of the interest which the horse represents, nor with 

 fast or slow horses, except such as are found at our fairs and agri- 

 cultural exhibitions. And while I was charged with preparing a 

 report upon this subject with direct reference to our own State, 

 I was also directed to open a correspondence with horse men, 

 breeders and Agricultural Societies in other States, to get their 

 views, opinions and experiences upon the subject. So I may be 

 pardoned, if in what is to follow I may allude incidentally to some 

 points of breeding, and to the practices of some societies outside 

 of our own State, where it has seemed to me such things have a 

 close bearing upon the matter in hand. 



In Maine, as in all other States, horse trotting has become quite 

 generally, if not somewhat permanently, established as one of the 

 sports of the people, and one of the leading features of fairs and 

 so-called agricultural exhibitions. I say somewhat permanently 

 established — and the statement is borne out by the fact that we 

 now have in this State over fifty tracks or race courses, an average 

 of more than three to each county. While in some instances these 

 tracks have been built by private driving associations, in more 

 they have been built wholly or in part by regularly incorporated 

 agricultural societies, as a legitimate accessory to them, or a 



