Annual Meeting 1105 



fine feut, clean bone, symmetry, splendid disposition, good consti- 

 tution, and blends with the trotter to perfection — making a 

 worker of about 1,350 pounds that can do and is able, willing, 

 sound, long-lived and handsome. Many farmers point to such a 

 one and say to me, ' There is the best horse I ever owned.' 

 Buyers pay long prices for them when they can get them, but 

 generally they are not for sale." 



Mr. Grattan's opinion will no doubt be indorsed by many who 

 are familiar with the type he describes; it is interesting to note 

 that he qualifies it with the provision, that it is recommended to 

 farmers who " want more weight." This raises a question of very 

 great importance — how much weight is requisite for the ideal 

 horse for New York farmers to raise. Without any knowledge 

 of the tasks which the horse is called to perform on the average 

 New York farm, and with only the experience gained from con- 

 ditions of farming in a western state a good many years ago, 

 which I venture to say were at least not superior to those which 

 New York possesses to-day, I believe any horse which weighs 

 over 1,200 pounds is too heavy for the general purposes of farm 

 work. Unless these farms are more difficult to cultivate than those 

 of the West, a team of 1,200 pound horses will accomplish more 

 plowing, planting, reaping and hauling in three days than a team 

 300 pounds heavier will in four. The average farmer does not 

 haul a load of more than two tons, and in the present condition 

 of the highways in this state, it would not be at all burdensome 

 for a pair of young, sound, well-seasoned horses, weighing not 

 over 1,000 pounds each, to haul such a load to a market at any 

 reasonable distance, and teams of this character are usually 

 trotting bred. 



The horses first used in the New England States and which 

 moved the settlers over the primitive highways into the wilder- 

 nesses of western New York, Ohio, IMichigan and Wisconsin, 

 cleared the land, hauled the logs, broke the new soil and were the 

 mainstay of the pioneers, were horses which possessed not a single 

 drop of draft blood. They were typical of the owners, bronzed by 

 toil, toughened by exposure and capable of the greatest endurance ; 

 though sometimes not half fed on the meanest of rations. Yet they 

 lived to the average age of 25 or 30 years and it was rare to find one 



