92 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



that of raising one of inferior quality ; the value of the former 

 at maturity is from three to six hundred, or it may be, thou- 

 sands of dollars, while the value of the latter is hardly enough 

 to pay for the food he has eaten. 



Robert Wood, Chairman. 



HAMPSHIRE, HAMPDEN AND FRANKLIN. 



From the Report of the Committee. 



The horses were out in sufficient numbers to form a cavalcade 

 extending completely around the half-mile track, and to render 

 any very critical examination of them an absolute impossibility. 

 This however was of little consequence, because nearly every 

 one was imported from Vermont or Canada, and bred nobody 

 cared how. The main inquiries respecting each competitor for 

 a premium related not so much to pedigree or history, color or 

 form, as to strength or speed, which were readily determined 

 by actual trial. The variety was as great as the number of 

 entries, and the mixture of breeds, if any of them deserve the 

 name, was wonderful. There were in some of the competitors 

 unmistakable traces of the high-stepping, lop-eared, lazy, but 

 tough Canadian stock, though not one genuine specimen. This 

 race has undoubtedly descended — in more senses than one — 

 from the famous Norman horse of France. The Massachusetts 

 Society for Promoting Agriculture has recently imported two 

 fine stallions of this breed, which are kept at Jamaica Plain, for 

 the improvement of our stock of work horses. 



There were at the show Morgan horses of almost every variety 

 from the genteel, swift-footed Black Hawk, to the compact and 

 spirited descendants of Green Mountain. Messenger and Ham- 

 bletonian stock, so-called, was not difficult to find, but as usual 

 the precise pedigree was an unknown quantity. It is perhaps 

 worthy of remark that while the descendants of Messenger have 

 always been celebrated as excellent roadsters, they now stand 

 u*nrivalled for speed on the trotting course, the fastest time on 

 record being that of Dexter, who trotted a mile, on the Fashion 

 Course, Long Island, October 10, 18GG, in two minutes and 

 eighteen and one-fifth seconds. He was sired by Rysdick's 

 Hambletonian, and raised by J. Hawkins, Montgomery, Orange 

 County, New York. 



