APPENDIX. 553 



York, November 19, 1879, the standard as printed on pages 519-20, in the 

 framing of which Mr. Wallace and General B. F. Tracy did the active 

 work, was unanimously adopted. 



Under this standard the work of compiling Volume IV., which involved 

 bringing forward animals registered in preceding volumes, that met its 

 requirements, and numbering stallions, was carried on. 



Meanwhile, some Kentucky gentlemen failed to acquiesce in the stand- 

 ard decision, and had, or believed they had, other grievances against the 

 compiler of the * 'Register. " They proceeded to plan to control the * ' Regis- 

 ter." but as in the last chapter of this work Mr. Wallace gives full details 

 of this and subsequent battles for the control of registration, this history 

 need not be here repeated. 



In the meantime the breeding interest was enjoying remarkable pros- 

 perity, and this was reflected upon and through the ''Trotting Register" 

 and Wallace's Monthly. In 1882 Volume IV. was published, Volume V. 

 in 1886, and Volume VI. in 1887, these containing about 6,000 pedigrees 

 each. Volume VII. appeared in 1888, Volume VIII. in 1890, and 

 Volume IX., the last published by Mr. Wallace, appeared in 1891. 



While an adequate discussion of the standard is neither necessary or 

 possible in this article, it was so obviously part and parcel of the "Trot- 

 ting Register" that its history must be briefly outlined. The standard 

 formulated in 1879 served its purpose well, but it was but an initial step, 

 and it was fully recognized by Mr. Wallace at the time that it would have 

 to be revised and strengthened from time to time so as to keep pace with 

 the progress of the breeders. If the standard to-day is held in slight 

 esteem, or even in contempt, it is clearly because it has been allowed to 

 lag far behind the progress of the breed. 



Evils grew out of the standard, even in its early years, simply through a 

 quite general misunderstanding of its purposes and its full meaning. Stand- 

 ard rank became instantly so popular and so sought after that thousands of 

 breeders aimed solely to breed into the standard, without much regard for 

 other necessary qualifications. They seemed to forget that it was merely a 

 definition of the blood that was eligible to the "Register," and not, 

 nor ever intended, to be taken as a general measuring stick of value. Soon 

 after its adoption an era of great prosperity came in trotting affairs, with 

 recklessly high prices for standard animals. With an apparently insatiable 

 market there came an abnormal expansion of the industry. Thousands of 

 men began breeding without knowing anything, either practically or 

 theoretically, about the industry, except how to get into the standard. 

 Hence the overproduction of not only standard trotting horses, but all 

 kinds of trotting horses of inferior breeding and little excellence, and the 

 subsequent break in prices, for all of which the standard has been by 

 inconsiderate persons blamed. 



Not long after its adoption Mr. Wallace saw these dangerous tendencies, 

 and in the Monthly warned the breeders against them, and early began 



