450 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT, 



THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT ESTABLISHING AN 

 AMERICAN BREED OF CARRIAGE HORSES. 



The Premier Sire, a Missouri Horse, Bred by Hon. Norman J. Colman, 

 First United States Secretary of Agriculture, and for Many Years 

 a Distinguished Member Missouri State Board of Agriculture. 



An essentially American breed of horses, bred primarily for carriage 

 use, and general excellence of conformation, is the aim of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, and surprising progress in the establishment of such 

 a breed has already been made. A small string of Morgan mares has 

 been assembled, and a sire for the new breed has been selected. The sire 

 is an inbred Hambletonian, Carmon 32917, American Trotting Horse 

 Register, once exhibited by Thomas W. Lawson as Glorious Thunder- 

 cloud. 



"What the thoroughbred is to the Englishman, the trotting horse is 

 to the American," said Dr. D. E. Salmon, chief of the Bureau of Animal 

 Industry. Taking this as his text, Dr. Salmon will describe the aims and 

 accomplishmens of his bureau in this direction in the forthcoming year- 

 book of the Department of Agriculture. 



"In the countries of the world where horse breeding has been en- 

 couraged by government assistance," says Dr. Salmon, "the foundation 

 has been native stock, and the key to successful work has been selection 

 according to a certain type. Furthermore, with all due respect to Go- 

 dolphin Arabian, the Darley Arabian and their contemporaries, the great 

 factor in developing the thoroughbred horse was the method of the Eng- 

 lish breeder, and more credit is due to native English stock and to envir- 

 onment than has generally been acknowledged. * * * The thorough- 

 bred has been the great leavening power in developing English breeds of 

 light horses ; the trotter may bear the same relation to the horse stock of 

 America. 



"The trotter is found throughout the country wherever horses are 

 raised, and any improvement in this breed affects in time the entire horse 

 industry. The light market classes can be supplied from this source, 

 and there is no more effective way to provide a supply of suitable cavalry 

 horses for the United Spates army than by showing how the native horse 

 may be improved. 



FAULTS OF THE TROTTER. 



"That the trotter has faults no one will deny, and that the speed idea 

 has been responsible for many of these faults and has caused many a 



