BREEDING THE TROTTER 



I was born in St. Catherines, Ontario, Canada, 

 in 1842. My father died when I was six years old 

 and, as it was necessary for me to do something 

 to support myself, I went on the farm of George 

 Oile, and he, after a fashion, adopted me. I was 

 then about nine years old. Mr. Oile's farm was 

 six miles from St. Catherines and twelve miles 

 from Niagara Falls. 



MY FIRST HORSE. 



I was about thirteen years when I came into 

 possession of my first horse, a gray colt, which 

 Mr. Oile gave me. It did not have a pedigree, in 

 fact, not much attention was paid to pedigrees in 

 those days. The colt was what would now be 

 called a nice general-purpose horse. Like all 

 boys in similar positions I thought the colt was 

 the greatest one in the world. I broke him and 

 drove him till he was four years old and sold him 

 for one hundred and fifty dollars, which was then 

 a lot of money for a colt, especially to a boy. 



I was now seventeen years old and about this 

 time I commenced working Mr. Oile's farm on 

 shares. I gave considerable attention to the 

 breeding of thoroughbred short-horn cattle and 

 long-wooled Leicester sheep and this knowledge 

 was afterwards of great service to me in the mat- 

 ing of trotters. 



As I have mentioned, little attention was then 

 paid to the pedigrees of trotters, but, as I liked 

 horses, I kept posted on such matters and before 

 long became quite celebrated, locally, as a sup- 



