118 State Board of Agkicultitue, &c. 



there is difference in the locality. EnHand, too, has brono'ht 

 into being a horse characteristic of her people. To com- 

 pare the monster English cart liorse witli the lithe, agile 

 barb of Arabia, cannot fail to bring to mind the description 

 given by the Scottish poet of the contrast between King- 

 Richard, the Crusader, and Saladin, the Saracen Monarch. 

 ****** **** 



While we see, in all parts of the world, these local char- 

 acteristics, dividing the animal into so great a variety, we 

 can but question onrselves as to what character of horse 

 do our climate and local interests demand. Have we use 

 for large team horses, to haul lumber, minerals or merchan- 

 dise to or from market ? Do we need, or have we induce- 

 ments, to breed to the track "i Is it profitable foj- us to 

 endeavor to make the attainment of a 2:-i0 or a 2:30 ffait 

 an accomplishment to be attained at whatever cost t For 

 what character of horses liave we the best market < Ask 

 Mr. Hunt, who comes to us from Ahington, Massachusetts, 

 near a dozen times a year, and who, in the last twenty years, 

 has paid for horses, in this section, over twenty thousand 

 dollars ; ask him, I say, what kind of horses he most gener- 

 ally seeks for. They are not selected for their great speed, 

 but solid, close built, trappy, hardy horses. He looks for 

 horses of all work ; good on the road, good at the plow, 

 good wherever they are put. 



As to the history of the New England horse, I can say 

 but little. We know nothing of any animal of the horse 

 kind indigenous to the country before the white people came 

 here. But horses have been brought in from three princi- 

 pal sources, the English, the French and the Spanish. To 



