132 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



"Men and matrons as well. Not losing his balance the rider 

 Springing would change from one to another while they were flying." 



Then "Trainer of horses" was a name of honor conferred by the gods. 

 Virgil, the greatest of Roman poets, who lectures on agriculture, describes for 

 farmers' use, a horse corresponding very well to our smaller and finer 

 Percheron : 



" Fine in the head and lofty in the crest, 

 Brawny in back and broad and deep in chest, 

 Short, stout in body, with thick flowing main, 

 A double spine, and solid hoofs that spurn, 

 And powerful beat the earth at every turn." 



[Does he purposely omit the legs?] 



Adonis's black horse, as described by Shakespeare comes nearer the old 

 fashioned Morgan : 



"In shape and color, courage, pace, and bone." 

 "Round hoofed, short jointed, fetlocks shag and long, 



Broad breast, full eye, small head, and nostril wide, 

 High crest, short ears, straight legs, and passing strong, 



Thick mane, thick tail, broad buttock, tender hide." 



Every schoolboy is familiar with Browning's sympathy for the thorougbred, 

 as seen in "How they brought the news from Ghent to Aix." Not only lit- 

 erature, but art abounds in horses. The war horse of Job, the Oriental horse 

 of Mohammed, the chariot horses of the Romans, the barbs of the Moor, the 

 saddle horses of the Turks and Arabians, the great heroic horses that have 

 dragged the artillery and ambulances of the vast armies, the sculptured Greek 

 horses of Phidias, and the painted Norman horses of Rosa Bonheur are 

 matters of which all persons of general information and culture must know 

 something. One so remote from practical agriculture as a professor of 

 English literature, then, may honestly talk about horses and not be stigmatized 

 as a jocky or a Jehu, or even an equine parson. This paper, however, is not 

 intended as a discussion of the horse from a literary or artistic point of view, 

 but from the practical business standpoint of the general farmer, whose oper- 

 ations must be carried on by horse power, and whose surplus horses go to the 

 market like any other surplus stock : not from the standpoint of the special 

 breeder, but the small farmer, who wants the best team for his own use and 

 horses that will readily sell at remunerative prices. 



While the lines of work for horses are becoming more definite year by year, 

 and horses are being bred and broken for more definite service, yet the breeds 

 are not so numerous, distinct, nor well defined as those of the other domestic 

 animals. Our large draft horses come to us mostly from France, Scotland, 

 and England, where much interest has for many generations been taken in 

 their breeding. A breed is a classification by which we distinguish a group of 

 animals possessing qualities not common to all the species, which pecul- 

 arities are so firmly established that they are uniformly transmitted by 

 heredity. Practically, the distinctions of breeds are confined to marked dif- 

 ferences of appearance, function, use, disposition, or quality. Horses might 

 be classed by the uses to which they are adapted — drafters, coachers, roadsters, 

 saddlers, general use ; or by their gaits — runners, trotters, pacers, single- 

 footers ; or by a combination of the two, which is the more common if the 

 less philosophical way. 



The French horses, called formerly Normans from their home, Normandy, 

 and now generally Percherons, from La Perche, are mostly dapple-gray, with 



