138 State Boakd of Agriculture, &c. 



time recorded for a miiiiber of years. VVliile it is claimed 

 that the Hambletonian family are furnishing the very fast- 

 est trotters, or most of the 2:20 class of horses, the Mor~ 

 o-ans are sendino; some into that class also : and the fact 

 of the Morgan blood in the dam of Gloster has not pre- 

 vented this grandson of Hambletonian, throngh Volunteer, 

 from making the best time yet recorded to tlie credit of any 

 of that family. While on this Hambletonian track, I can- 

 not I'efrain from making another comparison on this point. 

 It is claimed that this Hambletonian blood brings down 

 more of the Messenger trotting blood than is brought down 

 through any other source. I think it will be tair to trace 

 the history of two horses and their descendants, as likely to 

 throw a little light upon this subject. And for such liorses^ 

 I will take the Harris' Hambletonian and Hill's Black Hawk. 

 Both these horses stood for j'ears in the same county, and 

 both have reason to be proud of their reputation as sires of 

 trotters. I find that while Black Hawk has at least sixty 

 direct descendants, through nearly forty sires that have 

 made a record of 2:30 or better, Harris' Hambletonian has 

 not near half that number. Now after allowing for the 

 credit that is due to Harris' Hambletonian for sirins; manv 

 of the dams of these trotters by Black Hawk and his 

 descendants, we must accord altogether much greater credit 

 to Black Hawk for transmitting trotting power to his stock ;. 

 and any one who has lived in the neighborhood where both 

 horses stood knows that for general purposes the stock of 

 Black Hawk matured earlier, broke more kindly, and more 

 readily adapted themselves to common, everyday uses, than 

 the stock of the other ; and, in another particular, were 



