222 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



down through the middle ages, down past the wars of Napoleon, 

 and until the locomotive began to draw armies to the battle-field. 

 The horse for war, the running horse, has remained in the lead in 

 all those countries where the road to greatness has been by war. 

 It needed a country wooing the arts of peace and seeking greatness 

 by industry rather than by conquest to produce the trotter. 



In times of peace heretofore he has figured in the ceremonies 

 and as an index of rank, or with the rich as an implement of sport 

 or an element of luxury. 



In agriculture, and as a common beast of burden he played but 

 a minor part until within -the present century, and his little part 

 there was a sorry one. A papyrus m the British Museum tells us 

 what a miserable lot it was in Egypt a generation before Moses 

 wrote, and it did not change much for the better for nearly thirty- 

 three centuries. But with the improvement in roads and the use 

 of wagons he had a growing importance as a beast of draught, yet 

 this did not need fast trotters until new conditions should arise, 

 which will be noticed further on. 



Fashion and sentiments in society have always been an important 

 factor in producing breeds of improved horses, and determining 

 the direction the improvement should take. 



From the time when an ordinary Roman citizen was forbidden 

 to use white horses (and doubtless much earlier than this) there 

 has been a social factor entering into every problem of horse rais- 

 ing. "What colored horses might be used by persons of this rank 

 and of that, who might hunt on horseback and who might do it only 

 on foot, indeed who might ride at all, and who not, have been the 

 subject of numerous laws during all the previous centuries, and 

 exist still in some lands not enlightened by Christianity and not 

 possessing the modern trotter. 



In all ages the use or possession of the horse has been, in one 

 way or another, an emblem of social position with pagan, Mohame- 

 dan, Jew, and Christian alike. Even now, and in this free country, 

 a carriage and horses means more than the convenience of getting 

 about, and many a carriage and span in front of our churches on 

 Sundays means much more than the convenience of it in getting 

 there. We are told that an enthusiast went to Mentor soon after 

 the election of Mr. Garfield to the Presidency, to urge upon him 

 to walk to church rather than to go in his carriage. The news- 

 papers spoke of this social enthusiast and reformer as a bore; he 



