228 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



THE HORSE. 

 By Mr. Frank D. Ward, Batavia, N. Y. 



Mr. Chairman, and Members of the State Board of Agri- 

 culture: I sincerely regret that any change of program is 

 necessary this morning. I regret it, both on account of the 

 disappointment you must feel in not having this most important 

 subject, " The Production of Sanitary Milk " taken up, and 

 on account of the physical condition of my friend Dawley, 

 whom I fear is a very sick man. 



Coming up from New York this morning I was engaged 

 upon a very serious problem in mental arithmetic. The prob- 

 lem was this : how in the short time that was allotted to one sub- 

 ject I could say to the farmers of Connecticut the many things 

 that I wanted to say as to the importance of the live-stock 

 industry. I could not get any satisfactory answer to the 

 problem from my own thinking, but Colonel Brown, your 

 Secretary, furnished me with an answer after I got here, 

 when he told me that I must occupy this hour in talking about 

 the breeding of horses, a subject that I have always been 

 interested in, because ever since I was a boy I have been in 

 love with that noblest of animals. Furthermore, a large 

 portion of my life has been passed as an exhibitor of horses, 

 and as a buyer and seller of them. But, best of all, I have been 

 interested in the horse because I could get into a buggy and 

 take a good ride, and, to my mind, a better ride than a man 

 ever takes in a machine, for, an automobile will never take 

 the place of a good horse. 



Now it strikes me, brother farmers, that one of the serious 

 mistakes that the farmers in these eastern states have ever 

 made is in giving up to a great degree the breeding of live 

 stock on the farm. There never can be, and there never will 

 be any great agriculture, in a broad sense, in these eastern 

 states, except as the breeding and keeping of live stock plays 

 an important part in the operation of the farm. If you have 

 studied the history of agriculture in all countries, you must 

 agree with me that this is a fact, that we must make the breed- 

 ing, keeping and feeding of some class of live stock an im- 

 portant part of our farm work. Now this morning I am going 

 to say to you that there is no class of live stock on the farm 



