:j22 TOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



has resulted in a better horse and it is the horse that everybody loves. 

 He is the horse useful and beautiful — the all purpose horse for road and 

 plow — for country and city — for pleasure and work and pride and leisure. 

 But he carries the blood of centuries and is the highest developed in 

 America. Apropos to this we never tire of a story we once heard told by 

 Ex-Governor Hoard of Wisconsin. 



During the civil war the confederate forces surprised and routed the 

 union troops at Winchester and had them on the run. Companies, bat- 

 talions, batteries, regiments and all were on a disorderly retreat. A great 

 victory for the confederates was apparently inevitable. The Ex-Governor 

 himself was then a private soldier, trudging with thousands of others 

 along the dusty high-way in the mad rush to get somewhere, anywhere, as 

 a place of safety and avoid captivity or death. While in this condition 

 General Phil Sheridan concluding his famous ride of twenty miles, turned 

 this disorder and defeat into victory. Governor Hoard says: "I shall 

 never forget that pandemonium, neither shall I ever forget the change that 

 overcome our forces when General Sheridan came riding by us with hat 

 in air and giving the command to form face about for re-engagement. I 

 shall never forget the horse he rode as he came in from his famous ride 

 of twenty miles all covered with dust and foam, because it was due to 

 the efforts of that horse that the commanding general could be present 

 and that horse had been bred for 2,000 years to perform that task." 



It is to perpetuate this great American horse that the turf still exists 

 and is still loopular. There have been objectors to the racing because it is 

 claimed it is cruelty to animals. This is because appearances are de- 

 ceptive. They see the horses turn and come to the wire for the word, 

 each in the very pink of condition and every driver alert for the least 

 advantage. The horses themselves seem almost as eager as the drivers 

 and the spectators. People hear the starter give the word "go" and watch 

 them round the track with the very greatest interest and nervous tention. 

 They see these horses finishing their mile, exerting every fiber of their 

 body, calling on their greatest energy as well as an indomitable spirit 

 and they come on with ears set, eyes glaring, nostrils distended in sweat 

 and foam, each urged onward by expert reinsmen. There is a very delir- 

 ium of excitement on the part of the spectators and they lustily cheer 

 the winner. A fault finder says this is cruelty to animals as he sees them 

 led into the paddock, super-heated and panting. He does not stop to 

 think that this horse has been bred for endurance as well as time and he 

 also forgets to observe that many of the fastest horses have lived to the 

 ripe old age of from twenty-five to thirty-five. Time forbids the naming 

 of the long list of the queens and kings of the turf that have trotted and 

 paced the fastest miles over the American turf that lived to these ripe 

 old ages. 



There is proof abundant that the turf has its ligitimate place as a de- 

 partment in our agricultural fairs and it is for us to determine how best 

 to perform the task in these respects, set for us today. There are many 

 suggestions being made. My suggestion is that we set about to raise the 

 standard of the turf in the estimation of the horsemen as well as the 

 puljlic, thereby hoping to make it more attractive and more profitable to 



