140 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTUKE. 



form, vigor of constitution, perfection of action, and a prepotency inherited 

 from the finest lineage and transfused through the best blood of its kind. 

 Wendell Holmes says: ''Wherever the trotting horse goes he carries in his 

 train brisk omnibuses, the lively baker's cart, and, therefore, hot rolls, the jolly 

 butcher's wagon, the cheerful gig, the wholesome afternoon drive with wife 

 and child — all the forms of moral excellence except truth, which does not 

 agree with any kind of horseflesh." 



This is no place for special pleading for the turf, but the trotting horse of 

 -America, with all his singular excellence and great utility, could have no 

 existence but for the turf. Speed, and the severe test put upon the muscles 

 and constitution in bringing it out, can come of nothing but the best of par- 

 entage, endurance being the desideratum. Public running in the public races 

 has made the thoroughbred and maintained his speed and bottom. Public 

 trotting in public races has developed the trotter of the highest type, and 

 established his speed and bottom. The invaluable qualities of these classes 

 could be developed and sustained in no other way. But here is the practical 

 point for us; for every running or trotting horse that is used for sporting pur- 

 poses in fast public races, there are hundreds employed in other labors, 

 roadsters used in recreation or business, and many of the horses on our farms 

 whose value, in endurance, activity, and stoutness, is due to the turf. Every 

 class of horses — except mammoth drafters — has been made quicker, stronger, 

 more active, more enduring, more capable of doing sharp work and retaining 

 a good healthy condition, through the efforts of the race course. And it is to 

 the families that have made great names here that the farmer must look for 

 the foundation of his ideal horse. The excuse for the existence of the institu- 

 tion known as the turf is the production of a proper foundation for the farm 

 and coach horse, as well as the roadster. 



Many of our farmers are breeding for a special purpose, but none specially 

 for himself. One breeds draft horses, and there is profit in this class. Strong, 

 heavy, slow horses are wanted for drays, trucks, and express wagons in the 

 cities, and for teaming use in the lumber woods ; and they will bring cash as 

 surely as fat hogs. The farmer who thoroughly prepares himself to raise big 

 horses with good action, good legs and feet, and strong, robust constitution, and 

 weighing 1,600 lbs. or more, has a gold mine in his stable, the more profitable 

 the more industriously it is worked. 



Another breeds trotters and roadsters, and there is profit in this. The 

 trotter is the fashionable horse always in demand at top prices, and the road- 

 ster is an indispensable agent in all active business pursuits. The roadster 

 that can strike the key note to a two-twenty gait, or road fifteen or eighteen 

 miles an hour, will bring a fortune, and a few such will make the breeder as 

 rich as old Mr. Croesus. But to produce the iron will and stoat propelling 

 •power, the hard, muscular form, stout bone and sinew, and the accumulated 

 nervous energy to accomplish this feat, the farmer needs all the skill of half 

 a dozen expert scientists to trace out the lines of stock that will assimilate and 

 reproduce their kind, and he needs more capital to begin with than the profits 

 of the last corn crop. 



Now it is time for ns to begin to breed for ourselves You all know that an 

 elegant bay horse, 16 hands, 1,250 pounds, symmetrical, lofty, stylish in his 

 carriage, proud, a good stepper — four minutes or better, — with the trappiness, 

 docility, and style of the best old fashioned Morgans, drawn out in length of 

 body, limb, and neck till perfect proportion is reached, will bring a good round 

 ..price whether the country is prosperous or panic-stricken. The Morgans, 



