HoRSK> FOR Vkkmont. 129 



powers of endurance. With all these, he possessed such 

 fixedness of type as to enable him to impart these good 

 qualities, in a great measure, to his stock. As among other 

 kinds, there were poor ones, and, like all genuine merit, he 

 had his counterfeits that were palmed off for the gemiine, 

 to the great injury of the reputation of the true. But the 

 better specimens of the genuine Vermont Morgan seemed 

 to improve almost all kinds of horses upon which he was 

 used as a cross. To the aristocratic thorough-bred he 

 gave substance, flattened out his limbs, drawing down his 

 hocks, and giving him a make and form that made it possi- 

 ble to get the best trotting action ; a kindly disposition that 

 made it possible to work him with some comfort, with- 

 out taking aught from his spirit and courage. In short, the 

 cross gave animals that could be put to some use besides 

 beasts on which to expend money fitting for the race course 

 only to be disappointed, in nine times out of ten, after they 

 had been fitted, and leaving their owners with a lot of 

 unsound pests, of no use except to perpetuate their own 

 profitless, worthless race. 



I would not speak disparagingly of the best thorough- 

 bred horses, from which we have derived some excellent and 

 valuable strains of blood, but I nmst be pardoned if I can- 

 not appreciate the value of the most aristocratic thorough- 

 bred blood, after it has flowed through the veins of half a 

 dozen generations of unsound animals, who had given out 

 and broken down upon the race course, or even in common 

 use, for, talk as much as you please of the endurance of the 



thorough-bred horse, the average Morgan will endure an 

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