300 AaRTCUI^TrTRAL REPORT. 



fornia 2,7G8,1S7, Micliigau nearly 2,000,000, and Indiana, Illinois, Mis- 

 souri, and Wisconsin over a million eacli. The quantity of avooI raised 

 exceeded a hundred millions oi' pounds, iQore than a tifth part of which 

 was raised in Ohio. This Avas a gain of over forty-seven and a half 

 million pounds over the product of 1850, and of very nearly 40,000,000 

 over that of 1860. 



It will thus be seen that the production of wool constitutes no incon- 

 siderable part of our agricultural industry, and that, in this respect, we 

 have made a highly commendable degree of progress. This production, 

 though little enough when compared with what it ought to be in a 

 country so extensive and populous as ours, is still suflScient to place us 

 in the front rank as compared with other wool-producing countries. And 

 while the quantity has increased, the quality has been greatly improved 

 since the modem interest in breeding began. At the World's Fair in 

 London, in 1851, the fleece that commanded the highest prize for the 

 fineness and beauty of staple, in a free competition with Spain, Saxony, 

 Silesia, and other parts of Germany, was gTown on the green pastures 

 of Tennessee, while at the International Exhibition at Hamburg, in 

 1863, the Vermont merinoes carried off" the prizes. 



Whether the horse has actually undergone any improvement or not 

 may admit of some question, but it is certain that the horses of this 

 country have been greatly improved within the present century. The 

 chief means of carrying on our early inland commerce, including a 

 large amount of heavy teaming and transportation, was the horse. 

 The public roads were bad, worse even than they are at the present 

 day, and over these the freight of the country, whatever it was, had to 

 be moved in wagons made to be capable of the hardest usage. The 

 modern light carriage would have been comparatively useless in a new 

 country and over such roads, while a speed now seen every day would 

 have been quite unsafe. The mail contracts, even over a very large part of 

 the country, when the post system was instituted, were based on a 

 speed below four and five miles per hour. But there were no mails pre- 

 vious to 1790 ; and in 1791, the first year of the mail-service, there were 

 but eighty-nine post-offices in the whole country, and less than two 

 thousand miles of post-roads, and on these nine-tenths of the mail-serv- 

 ice was done on horseback, the stage-service being very small. 



It will thus be seen that the social conditions of the last century were 

 not favorable to the improvement of the horse, certainly not to in- 

 crease his speed, now considered indispensable. Fast trotting was 

 scarcely known at the time of the old '' Justin Morgan," foaled in 1793, 

 nor was speed estimated as of special money value till the invention of 

 the modern light buggy and the improvement of roads, but this quality 

 has now come to be essential to the comfort and convenience of ail 

 classes of people. In this respect there can be no question that a great 

 increase has been attained by careful breeding, especially within the last 

 thirty years, while much greater attention has been paid to style, action, 

 temper, form, constitution, and endurance, so that the aggregate money 

 value of our horses has been enhanced by the higher general average 

 of intrinsic good qualities. 



These improvements are largely due, no doubt, to the frequent impor- 

 tation and infusion of thoroughbred blood into our stock. In some sec- 

 tions of the country, at the South and the Southwest, they may be said 

 to be almost wholly due to this source. But in the New England States, 

 and to no small extent in the Middle and Western States, they are due 

 to the influence of two great classes of horses, both very celebrated 

 roadsters, known as the Morgans and the Blackhawks, the former de- 



