702 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 
early English writers on the horse, said: “‘Some men have a breed 
of great horses, meete for the warre and to serve in the field, others 
breed ambling horses of amean stature, for the journey and to travel 
by the way. Some againe, a race of swift runners to run for wagers,” 
etc. In the reign of Charles II a great impetus was given to racing, 
and continual importations of Hastern blood flowed into England. The 
race-horse was forming‘as a breed and took the first place in the affec- 
tions of Englishmen. Before the overwhelming tides of desert blood 
the pacer gradually became extinct in England, until John Lawrence 
tells us, in 1809, that ‘‘the people have lost all remembrance of the | 
amble.” Indeed, it is the popular belief, wholly untenable, however, 
that the pacer never was known to exist in England. Atthe time of 
the founding of the American colonies the pacer was at least popular, 
if not esteemed patrician as in the early days; and as the horse stock 
of the colonies came chiefly from England, I think it is beyond ques- 
tion that in these importations came the ancestors of the American 
and Canadian pacer. The horses of Rhode Island, known as ‘‘ Narra- 
gansett pacers,” attained wide celebrity in the seventeenth century, 
and the pacer was the race-horse of the Rhode Islanders and Virgin- 
ians of the olden time. They were one of the great staple products 
of Rhode Island at that day and were largely exported. But in 
time, as the colonies grew in wealth, the pacer was scattered and 
crowded out by larger, better horses, a race more acceptably suiting 
the requirements of the people. 
The names of the families of pacing origin most frequently en- 
countered in the choice blood lines of our modern trotters are the 
Pilots, the Blue Bulls, the Columbuses, the Hiatogas, the Copper- 
Bottoms, ete. 
The originator of the Pilot family was a black pacing horse that, - 
according to tradition, and tradition only, came from Canada, and 
was probably foaled about 1826. He is famous as the sire of Pilot, 
jr., a gray horse of much merit as a trotter and sire of trotters. 
The blood of his dam is unknown. He evinced the rare power to get 
trotters out of running mares, and two of his fastest and best were out 
of maresso bred. Though he sired nine trotters with records rang- 
ing from 2:24 to 2:30, and although some of his sons, notably Bayard 
and Tattler, have proved successful sires, it is through the triumphs 
of his daughters as brood-mares that he is most esteemed. Thirteen 
of these have produced twenty-six trotters with records of 2:30 or 
better, and among the produce of Pilot, jr., mares are the two fastest 
trotters yet produced—Maud §., 2:083, and, Jay-Hye-See, 2:10. 
The marvelous pacing horse Blue Bull is the phenomenon of trot- 
ting-horse history. ‘‘ A plebian of the plebians,” got by a horse on 
whom the atrocious name the family bears was bestowed as a mark 
of opprobrium, a cripple with nota line of distinguished blood to lend 
him worth, from the uses of an ignominious office he rose in his day, 
by sheer force of merit, to the frant rank of trotting sires. This re- 
markable horse was foaled in Switzerland County, Ind., in 1854, 
and died at Rushville, that State, in 1880. He was wonderfully fast 
at the pacing gait, and even after being crippled could show great 
flights of speed. For several recent years he has figured as the sire 
of more trotters than any horse that ever lived, and it was only dur- 
ing 1887 that that honor passed from him to George Wilkes. Fifty- 
two of his get have records ranging from 2:174 to 2:30. At present, 
while we canrank Blue Bull asa very great sire of speed, 1am not very 
sanguine that the future will rank him a great progenitor. His own 
