28 • BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



recollect attending the New England Fair last fall, and I was on 

 the ground one day with two ladies, who cared nothing about the 

 horse trot — didn't want to see it, they said. I urged them to go. 

 I said, " You had better see it. There are to be some nice horses 

 there ; some that you read about every day in the newspapers." 

 Finally, they went. There was an old gentleman in the company, 

 and before the trot was over, he said to the ladies, "I think we 

 had better go home. Suppose we go, and leave Mr. Prince to see 

 the rest." One of the ladies turned to her sister, and said, "I 

 think I should like to see it out," and they concluded to let the 

 old gentleman go, and gtay themselves and see the trotting. 

 Nether of them had ever seen a horse trot before in her life, and 

 they were both greatly interested. As the gentleman from Mt. 

 Vernon says, you have got to educate the people before you can 

 do away with these trots, and that, I don't believe you can do. 

 You have got to make them over. 



Mr. Williams. I do not wish to be understood as desiring to 

 do away with the horse trot. I like to see a horse trot as well as 

 any other man. But I was noticing the disparity between the 

 premiums offered by our society, (and I presume -our record is 

 similar to that of other societies,) and questioning the propriety 

 of it ; that was all. I do not believe we can dispense with horse 

 trots at our fairs. They are desirable, if properly conducted. 

 There is the point. 



Mr. Lucas of Somerset. I am glad that this question has come 

 up for discussion. It was discussed at the last meeting of our 

 society, and it will be taken up again at the next meeting, a week 

 from Saturday. At our last show we had a premium of $50 for 

 trotting horses. The result was, that we really got but a small 

 amount of money. The idea is, that we had better increase the 

 premiums and keep up exhibitions of that kind. 



The question has been raised whether a horse is injured by trot- 

 ting upon the track. I agree with Mr. Martin, tliat if a horse is in 

 proper condition, and is properly cared for afterwards, it hurts him 

 no more to trot than to do anything else. More of our horses are 

 spoiled the first fifteen minutes on ordinary roads than in any 

 other way. They are kept in the stable and overfed, and have too 

 little to do, and when they are taken out, they are at once put to 

 their speed, and the result is, they are spoiled. 



As I am summoned home and do not expect to be here at the 

 subsequent meetings, I want to say a single word in regard to 



