THE BUSINESS HORSE. 241 



A gentleman's driving horse is difftrent, and should be different 

 in some respects. To he sure, speed is one object in view, and the 

 more he possesses the better. Style, size, color and height are indis- 

 pensable qualifications. Such a horse can be raised successfully and 

 profitabh'. The demand is great for them, and the market never will 

 be full. 



The farm or business horse comes as near a general purpose horse 

 as any class I know of. What I mean b3' a general purpose horse 

 is such a one as we use for plowing, harrowing, mowing, raking and 

 in fact all general work — capable of hauling wood or logs, capable 

 of hauling grain to the mill or the produce of the farm to market, 

 or the family to church, capable of being driven on the road at the 

 rate of from six to ten miles per hour with ease, and above all a 

 cheerful and rapid walker. Too much cannot be said upon this one 

 qualification ; it has been overlooked in all classes. In the desire to 

 raise trotters it has been overlooked, in the attempt to raise driving 

 horses it has been ignored, and in raising general purpose horses 

 something else has been sought after rather than to increase their 

 ability to walk at the rate of from four to five miles an hour. In 

 this hillv country, where much of the time must be necessarily con- 

 sumed in walking, it is ver}' important that they should Ix' able to 

 perform that service with ease and rapidity. A horse that is used 

 more than any other class of horses in the cities, on the hacks, 

 'busses, coaches, cars ; used by express companies, fire companies, 

 in fact seventy-five per cent of all the horses used are what I term 

 general purpose horses. 



P^xcuse me, if I relate what I saw at an agricultural fair a few 

 years since. "When the officers of the society and committee called 

 up the stallions for raising general purpose horses, and in response 

 to that call appeared such horses as Dr. Franklin, Glenarm, Gen. 

 Withers and others, to sa}' that I was surprised would be expressing 

 my feelings in very feeble terms. I supposed that I was engaged in 

 raising general purpose horses, but when I saw such horses as I have 

 already mentioned come up to the stand for examination, I thought 

 that either I was wrong in my views of a general purpose horse, or 

 else these people were, and I began to look around me and rub m}' 

 eyes, brush away the fog and try to discover what it all meant ; and 

 I came to the conclusion that such horses as I saw there on exhibi- 

 tion were not, in fact, general purpose horses. Since then the same 

 horses have been advertised as speed horses, with their records at-^ 

 tached. 



