1883.] THE AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 239 



improved, and from that time lists of 2.30 horses in some shape, 

 have appeared each year, the lists of 2.25 horses being quite nu- 

 merous and prepared with much care. For the figures up to j871, 

 I have gone over the printed records to that date, and made a 

 card catalogue of the 2.30 horses year by year, with the records 

 as published. To make the showing as good as possible I have 

 included in my figures records under saddle, and records with 

 running mate, except two which affect the best records of their 

 respective dates. Moreover, I have not carefully weeded out 

 all where the track was too short or for a few other technicali- 

 ties. Hence my figures are larger in several cases than the 

 strict records, according to the rules of to-day, would allow 

 But as the table has been prepared as a study in the evolution 

 of a breed, and the figures are for relative use and comparison, 

 their value for this purpose is not impaired by this kind of 

 inaccuracy. I can only say that they are approximately correct, 

 that they have cost me in the aggregate some months of 

 labor, and that absolute accuracy is now out of the question. 

 The printed reports abound in so many errors, typographical and 

 otherwise; there are so many irreconcilable statements, so many 

 disputed points where experts differ, that no table will probably 

 ever be made that will be accepted by all as entirely accurate. 

 A better one can probably be made when Chester's forthcoming 

 " Complete Trotting and Pacing Record'" shall have been published, 

 if any one will carefully collate all the "35,000 events," and I 

 hope in the interest of science some one will have the time and 

 inclination to do it. The following table is the only one of its 

 kind I have yet seen, and inaccurate and imperfect as it may be, 

 and must be from the very nature of the case, nevertheless it is 

 the most interesting series of figures ever yet brought together, 

 illustrating the evolution of a breed. 



